Ending Before We Begin
by mamapranayama
Summary: What if Daniel had an adventure before he could accept Catherine's offer to translate the Stargate and met Sam and Jack before that first mission to Abydos? How will things play out differently? AU-ish
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

_Here's an AU story I've been tossing around in my head for a while. I figure this was either a good idea or it could be a really good lesson in humility. Anyway, I was just wondering what would have happened if Daniel had an adventure before taking Catherine up in her offer to translate the Stargate and what if he met Sam first before Shar're and before going on that first mission. How would things work out? I'm not sure if this has been done before, but here is my take on it._

**Ending Before We Begin**

**by Mamapranayama**

************

_**Daniel**_

Here it was.

The official end of my career.

After years of painstaking research, countless hours working long into the night, translating ancient stories, piecing together my theories on the pyramids and when I finally uncovered what I knew to be the truth, what did I have to show for it? An eviction notice, twenty-five dollars and some change in my checking account and now, Dr. Daniel Jackson, you are _the_ laughing stock of the archaeological community. Way to go, me!

I watched helplessly as one man left the lecture hall followed by two more people. There was laughter coming from most of them, one man heckled something about me believing the pyramids were built by Martians and I was pretty sure I heard one of them call me a whack-job. Derision written on all of their faces, the entire audience was soon on its feet, walking out on me. I was nothing more than a crackpot to them. I was warned that I would be laughed at, Sarah had told me so herself. I didn't listen to her however, I just had to go and espouse my theory that the pyramids were thousands of years older than we realized, that the Pharaohs of the 4th dynasty couldn't have built them and not only that, but I just had to add that Colonel Vyse was a fraud. That was most likely the clincher for them. I might as well have told them that man never walked on the moon or that the dinosaurs never existed. I couldn't blame any of them for leaving, really. I had pretty much told them that everything they knew was wrong.

It's not like I didn't think it sounded crazy. Trust me, I thought long and hard before deciding that I wanted to discuss my theories at this lecture. After all that Nick had been through trying to prove his theories, I certainly didn't want to end up in a psych ward like he had, but what did I really have to lose anyway? Sarah was gone, my grants were terminated, people I thought were my friends hardly spoke to me and whatever respect I ever found from my colleagues had poofed away long ago. What more could really be taken from me?

As the people filed out, I kept talking. Why? I don't know. I tried to get them to understand, to explain my position; how Khufu couldn't have built the Great Pyramid, how the Sphinx was older than we first expected, so why couldn't the pyramids be as well? It was useless. They weren't listening to me and they weren't interested in what I had to say anymore. If there was anything worse than being ignored, it was being dismissed. And I had just been dismissed, big time. One man remained, but I could tell by the awkward look on his face that he just hadn't been fast enough to leave with everyone else and that he wanted to bolt as well.

"Is there a lunch or something?....." I ask jokingly, trailing off with a nervous laugh. The man only shook his head in disgust and left me standing alone in the now empty room. I sighed heavily. At least, things couldn't have gone any worse, I tried to console myself, failing miserably. That's all I was good at anymore: failure.

Dismayed, I pack up my notes and slides, stuffing them into my bag. I hefted it over my shoulder and grabbed my suitcase, heading for the exit. I'm too lost in my thoughts and too busy trying to figure out how I was going to feed myself after this debacle to notice much of anything, not even the dark-haired man following me out into the street.

Of course, just to add a cherry to the top of my shit sundae, as soon as I step outside it begins to rain. _This day keeps getting better and better. _I pull up the hood of my jacket and look up and down the street wondering where to go from there. I had no money left, I was stuck in San Fransisco and couldn't even afford lunch, let alone cab fare.

As the rain soaks my jacket and my shirt below, I feel a desperation I had never felt before. Archeology is the only thing I love and now it's gone. My throat constricts painfully as I come to the conclusion that I'd be lucky if I could get hired as a gopher at a dig now. I could just forget about doing my research anymore, no one was even going to allow me into the university library after this.

I stood there, trying to keep the last of my possessions dry, letting the rain fall on me, fogging up my glasses, making it hard to see and I just couldn't muster the energy to care that I'm starting to shiver from the cold.

That's when an umbrella appears over my head and I look up in surprise to see a man in uniform.

"Dr. Jackson?" He asks.

"What?... Yes?" I'm a little perplexed as to why a man from the Air Force is addressing me by name, but before I really comprehend what is happening, I am shuffled into the back of a waiting car, dripping wet and seated next to an old lady.

"Jackson, are these your parents?" She holds a photograph up and a weird feeling rises up from my stomach and I can't say I like it very much. I remove my hood to look at her and the photo. What is going on?

"Foster parents." I answer bewilderedly. I honestly don't even recall the people in the photo, but I recognize my face. There were so many different couples I had been passed around since my parents died and Nick abandoned me to the foster care system that I don't even remember their names.

I'm still trying to figure out what is going on when she is suddenly offering me a job translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. I am dumbfounded. As great as that sounded, I figured she had to be crazy. Who would offer me a job after that f***ed-up fiasco in the hotel? I remembered seeing her in the doorway during the lecture, watching me crash and burn. Before I can refuse, she's throwing the fact that I have nothing left in the world in my face and is handing me plane tickets. I'm led out of the car, back into the rain. I pull up my hood again and watch in confusion as the car takes off.

For a few moments I am too stunned to move, but the rain brings me back to my senses and I look at the plane tickets. They're for a flight leaving that afternoon. There's also a hundred dollars in cash within the envelope. I guess she figured I needed some traveling money, at least I can catch a cab instead of walking all of the way to the airport. Wait....Was I really going to go get on a plane to?...looking at the destination on the itinerary, I read that it's for Colorado Springs. What could be in Colorado Springs that could involve ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Air Force? She really was crazy and I realize that she never even gave me her name. However, if the Air Force was paying her way, it had to be something important. Right? At the very least, my curiosity was tweaked and I had to find out what this was all about.

Making up my mind that even if the lady was insane, it was at least a job and it would put food in my stomach. I grab my things so I can hail a taxi; I was going to do this thing. As I reach the curb and raise an arm for a cab, I feel a presence behind me and something being shoved into my back.

"Don't make any sudden moves, Dr. Jackson." A man with a smooth British accent whispered threateningly into my ear. "You're coming with me."

"What the...?" Oh God, I was being kidnapped in broad daylight. I cursed inwardly at the big city mentality of the people around me who weren't even paying attention to my plight as the man grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me away from the curb. I couldn't see the gun, but I could feel the hard metal pressing into my spine as a car with dark windows pulled up and I was roughly pushed inside the backseat.

The man followed me in and pulled out the weapon that had been in his pocket. I didn't recognize the strange looking gun in his hand, it was unlike any firearm I had seen before, not that I had a whole lot of knowledge about weaponry, but when he pressed a button on it an it activated with a high-pitched whine and he pointed it my direction, I figured it couldn't be good. His clean-cut features, well tailored clothes and handsome face did little to mask the malice I could see in his eyes. Then to my shock, his eyes actually glowed!

"We have much to discuss, Daniel Jackson." My eyes widened in surprise even further as the man's voice changed into a deep dual-toned baritone that echoed with the undercurrents of hatred. I knew then that I was in deep shit. I had to get out of that car!

I tried to fight my way to the other side of the backseat. My thoughts focused on getting as far away from this man as possible. This day had just taken a strange twist from the improbable to the downright frightening and my fight or flight response kicked into overdrive. I have never been much of a fighter; just ask all of the bullies that turned my underwear into headgear during high school, but I fought harder than I ever had before in my desperate attempt at escape. I didn't get far.

I heard the weapon discharge a fraction of a second before I felt it and my world exploded in pain then I knew no more.

OOOOOO

It was dark when I opened my eyes again. I groaned, my head felt like it was splitting in two and and I found myself lying on my side with my hands tied behind my back. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was in a trunk of a car moving at a high rate of speed.

This was great, just great, I thought. I was being kidnapped. What on Earth did I do to deserve this? Sure I just gave a lousy lecture, but was it really that bad? I wondered vaguely if this had anything to do with my encounter with the woman at the hotel. Did this have something to do with the Air Force? And what was up with the guy with the glowing eyes? Was he even human? Was it a trick of some kind just to scare me?

While all of those questions popped unanswered into my head, I felt the car come to a screeching halt and I was flung forward, hitting my head against the side of the trunk, further exasperating my already sore head.

I squinted my eyes against the harsh light as the trunk popped open and two large hands reached down and pulled me out roughly. I landed on the hard concrete with a thud on my shoulder. I gave out an involuntary yelp then looked up at the huge man that had thrown me to the ground, seeing the strange tattoo on his forehead. I recognized the symbol, but couldn't think straight enough to match a name to it. Looking around, I could see that we were not outside anymore, but rather in a large garage.

I was hauled to my feet by the gigantic goon and dragged to a chair, my hands unbound then tied around the back of the chair again. The back door of the sedan next to us opened and the man with the glowing eyes approached with a slight swagger.

"Well,well, well.....Dr. Daniel Jackson." He came up close to my face, appraising me. "It's been a long time. You certainly look....different." He flicked away the hair falling into my face and I recoiled.

"It has?" I asked. The big guy landed a hard slap across my face and I tasted blood.

"Kree, Jaffa!" The man spoke. Whatever he was saying to the man was in a language I had never heard before, but had a familiar sound to it, much like some of the older dialects of ancient Egyptian, but different. I would have to hear more before I knew for certain, but my thoughts weren't focused on a translation at the time, rather I was concerned more about how I was going to get myself out of this situation.

"You would not know me, Dr. Jackson. Not yet anyway" The man's voice returned to his previous normal voice, complete with his fluid accent. "But I know you." He smiled in a creepy way and I felt shivers crawl up my spine. Why were people so suddenly interested in me? I'm an unemployed and washed-up archaeologist for God's sake, not some sort of secret agent.

"Who are you, what do you want with me?" I asked, using all of my courage to throw him a nasty glare.

He smiled wider and laughed which only frightened me more, crumbling my resolve. The unbelievable words he spoke next sent me hurdling further into this Twilight Zone and if I hadn't been so securely fastened to my seat, I would have fallen out of it.

"I am Lord Ba'al."

_To Be Continued......._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 2**

**_Sam_**

_Sam, we need to talk. Meet me for lunch. You know where._

I sighed and ripped the yellow post-it note off of my computer screen, staring at it in frustration. Did I want to meet him? We did need to talk, but I certainly didn't want to. Not after last night.

I shook my head at the memory and rubbed my jaw unconsciously before crumpling up the note and tossing it into the waste basket.

Jonas wanted to elope last night, thinking it would be spontaneous and fun. We could go to one of those cheesy drive through chapels in Vegas and just get it over with, he told me. Forget about all of the planning, the dress, the bridesmaids, flowers and everything else. We could just be married without all of the fanfare, right away.

But when he asked, the knot that had been forming in my stomach for the last few weeks since he first proposed tightened. I suppose it was the thought of actually being married to Jonas that had been scaring me so much. I had ignored the nagging feeling that things weren't as they should be, that I wasn't feeling as elated as someone who was getting married should.

Like a coin, there are two sides to Jonas Hanson. Two faces. There is the face he wears when we are together in public; I call it the 'date face'. The face of the perfect gentleman, a facade that he's carefully constructed that makes him appear to be the picture of chivalry. I had to admit that I was taken in by this subtle deception at first, completely mesmerized by his charms. I melted whenever he sent me flowers or pulled a chair out for me or took me ballroom dancing. He could be funny, brave, smart, clever and romantic when he wanted to be and this was the Jonas I loved.

But then there was the other Jonas and his darker side. The face that I had come to think of as the 'at home face.' The one that had seen way too much shit go down when he was in black-ops; that had seen too many friends die.

It wasn't so much a mask as it was a removal of one. It was his true face, the one that only came out when we were alone. The one that didn't want me to have any friends besides him, the one that secretly read my email and thought I wouldn't find out, the one that was insanely jealous if I so much as even looked at another man. That was the face that scared me.

As he took my hands last night and asked me to elope. I knew suddenly that if I was to marry him, I would be marrying both sides of Jonas. The good and the bad.

That's when I had that light-bulb moment.

That's when I realized I didn't love him.

That's when I realized I couldn't marry him.

That's when I gave the ring back.

That's when Jonas flew into a rage. The fury in his eyes blazing as he yelled and accused me of betraying him, of leading him on. The more I tried to reason with him and the more I attempted to explain why I just couldn't go through with the marriage, the angrier he became until his fury climaxed and culminated with a fist flying in my direction at a startling speed.

I was caught off guard. I hadn't expected him to actually hit me. But looking back, I should have seen it coming. I moved to deflect it, but was too late to completely avoid his wrath and his hand made contact with my jaw, sending me reeling to the floor.

In anger and in tears I pulled myself up, hurt more from the emotional shock of it all than from the physical pain. Jonas gave me an apologetic expression and implored me for forgiveness. But I was too upset to respond and ran for the door with him following after me. I yanked open my car door and slammed it shut, fumbling for the car keys so I could make my escape.

Finally gaining enough control over my trembling hands to start the car, I tried to take off, but Jonas pounded on the windshield. Crying and telling me he sorry he was over and over again, begging and pleading with me to get out of the car and talk.

For a moment I hesitated.

For a split second, my hand hovered over the ignition, wanting to turn the engine off, wanting to get out of the car. Looking thought the window I could see the desperation in his eyes, but I could also see the anger and the hurt.

Now was my chance to get away and I had to take it.

I slammed the car into reverse and flew backwards out of his driveway, leaving him standing alone, calling my name as I drove away.

And now there's this note. It's Jonas' handwriting. He wants to meet for lunch. I know he wants to meet at out usual lunch spot; The deli on the corner. I wasn't too fond of the place, but it was Jonas' favorite, so we ate there on most days. I owed him an explanation, I thought. But I was still so angry and I could feel the bruise pulsate on my jaw that I had covered with makeup this morning.

Glancing at the clock, it was nearing lunchtime, I would have to make a decision soon. Even though I still had a lot of work to do, I could still make it to lunch.

On my desk was a new assignment for me to work on. Computer system updates on the artifact kept at Cheyenne. I had heard, the translations of the cover stones that had been found with the artifact were only partially translated and we still had no clue what it was capable of completely, only that it was a 'doorway' of some kind, perhaps some kind of transportation device.

It had been activated before. Once in 1939 while it was being transported across the ocean, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the vessel carrying it and again in 1969. Then there was an incident at Area 51 in 1989 where it was being held before being shipped to Cheyenne Mountain where it appeared to be activated, the crate it had been held in had been found with a hole on each side, like the wood had been vaporized. No one had seen near it, but the reports I got were spotty at best and I knew I wasn't getting the whole story. I wondered if people had actually come through the device, but my need to know and security clearances weren't high enough for that knowledge apparently.

But I was still excited to be involved with such a program. Sure, it wasn't NASA, but I vividly recall the first time I had the chance to see the gigantic ring in person and I was proud to be apart of something so important. It was possible that this was the greatest discovery the human race had ever known. We just needed to find a way to make it work.

We knew that six symbols on the cover stone matched some of the symbols on the giant ring, but the last one wasn't anywhere to be found on the device. It was my theory that the seven symbols comprised a sort of address or destination, each symbol representing as a point in 3-D space. The only problem was we didn't know which one could be the seventh symbol.

Thankfully, Catherine Langford thought she had found someone that was an expert in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and might be able to help us with the translations. I picked up the dossier she sent to me on the archaeologist she was to be paying a visit to and flipped through it.

It was impressive to say the least. The man had three doctorates, could read and speak over twenty languages, most of them fluently. He was an expert in Egyptology and had some interesting theories regarding the pyramids.

There was a picture included with the file, most likely taken from a DMV photo. He was a nice looking young man, but somewhat geeky with unruly long hair falling over wire-framed glasses and big blue eyes. I wondered why he covered his face with his hair like that? It was as though he was trying to hide from the world and make him self as invisible as possible. Unlike Jonas, who went out of his way for attention, this man seemed to shy away from it.

Thinking of Jonas, I looked up again at the clock and noticed that most of my colleagues had left for lunch already. I made up my mind then that it was for the best if I went ahead and met Jonas for lunch. At the very least, we would be in public and he wouldn't be able to pull anything like he did last night and we might actually be able to get a serious conversation in without him losing his temper.

I stash away my files and lock them up securely in the filing cabinet before heading out. The Pentagon during this time of day is pretty busy with people streaming in and out for lunch. I make my way past the crowds and to the parking lot.

Driving to deli, I find no parking spaces nearby and I have to settle with a parking garage two blocks away. Cars are streaming in and out of the garage, so I fail to notice the black van that had pulled into the space next to mine.

I get out and lock my car but no sooner have I started on my way to the exit when I feel a hand grab my upper arm. Immediately I go into self-defense mode, whirling on my attacker. It is a huge man with a strange forehead tattoo and he towers over me by at least two feet, but I'm undeterred. I fight against his grip, spinning on my heel and landing an elbow to his midsection. He seems oblivious to the pain and it serves to enrage him. His hands wrap around my waist. I call out, but the level is empty save for us. I kick and scream, hoping someone will hear my calls. A hand wraps around my mouth, muffling my cries and I am being dragged backward.

My only thoughts are to get away, but as I struggle, I hear a second voice behind me. He's saying something rapidly in a language I've never heard before and my coat sleeve is yanked up my arm forcefully. He immobilizes my arm and I try to wriggle out of his grasp, but he's too strong. The other man appears before me, he too has the same strange tattoo on his forehead and I wonder vaguely if it is some sort of gang symbol.

To my horror he produces a vial and a syringe, filling it with a clear fluid, measuring it and squirting the excess out of the top of the needle. I call out again as he plunges the syringe into my arm but my pleas only echo off the concrete walls of the parking garage.

Instantly I feel dizzy. The world swirls around me and my legs turn to rubber. I collapse and the lights of the garage grow dim. I want to keep fighting, but I know that whatever drug I have been injected with is too powerful for me to resist and everything fades to black.

**_Jack_**

The silence is deafening. It shouldn't have to be this way.

I lay on his bed, staring up at the stars he put up on the ceiling after his last birthday. _His last birthday_. My heart tears at the thought. No more birthdays. Not for my son.

The tears come easily and I let them fall hotly down my face unchecked. I'm done trying to hide from the pain anymore. I deserve the pain, I deserve more than just pain.

In my hands I cradle the gun. That same gun. The same one he went for when I told him I didn't have time to play. The same one I left loaded. The same one I heard go off......

It was loaded again, but this time there's only one bullet and it's meant for me. But I'm a coward and I just can't bring myself to do it. At least not while Sara's in the house. I owe her that at least.

I keep looking at the stars. He loved stars and had carefully placed each one into the constellations. There was Orion in one corner, Cassiopeia in an other, the big dipper and many others that I couldn't identify, but he knew by heart. So many times he told me how he wanted to go to space and be an astronaut and I always told him he could do whatever he set his mind to. Now he would never get that chance.

Christmas would be here soon and a telescope waited to be opened by him, it's wrapped and hidden so it would be a surprise. Now I can't bear the thought of it being in this house, never to be opened. It will never be loved the way he would have loved it. Forever it will remain buried in a closet; if only I could forget it was there.

There is a knock at the door and it's Sara, but she doesn't come in, only stands in the hall. She can't handle being in this room and doesn't look up to address me. She's never said it, but I know she hates me almost as much as I hate myself. I killed our son. How could she not hate me?

"Jack?" She asks. I can't answer her. I just keep looking to the stars.

"There are some men here to see you." I still can't gather the courage to look at her. I can't stand the look of pain and emptiness in her eyes. She backs away from the door and two men enter.

"O'Neill?" One asks. I turn to look at them. Both of them look like they could be linebackers with the 49ers. They wear Air Force class-A uniforms, but something is off. I realize it's the headgear. Both men are wearing the officer visors low on their brow, but neither has bothered to remove their hats, something that would be second nature to a true officer when entering a building, especially when addressing a senior officer. Immediately I eye the suspiciously.

"Who's asking?"

"You need to come with us." Again, the lack of a 'sir' piques my alarm bells. I have the feeling that neither of these men are Air Force.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." That's when the men decided to quit playing nice and dropped the charade, grabbing me and hauling me off of the bed. I fight against them and manage to land a few blows to solar plexus on one guy, but it's like he doesn't even notice. Then Sara's there, panicking.

"Jack!" I fight harder to keep these two from laying a hand on my wife, but it's too late. One man had raised a weapon and I watch in slow motion as he levels it one her. I dive for him, hoping to knock it out of his hand, but the other brute has me in his grasp and I can't break free. He fires. A bolt of something I could only identify as either an electric charge or like a phaser from Star Trek, hits her and she falls to the ground with a cry of pain.

"Sara!" I cry out, wanting to reach her, but I'm held back. I can only pray that she isn't dead.

Anger wells up on me and I see only red. Adrenaline pulses through my veins and I'm on fire. My only thoughts are to kill these men. I kick with both feet against the bed, pushing us both backward we fall to the floor. Momentarily caught off guard, I land punch after punch into the man's face, but his buddy with the ray gun is on top of us in a heartbeat and is hauling me to my feet.

I spin and twist out of his grasp and manage to escape for a brief moment. I try to reach Sara, but an arm has wrapped itself around my neck and constricts. I can't breathe and my vision darkens. I don't care if I die, but I need to save Sara; she's all I have left and I never realized it until that moment. I pull on the arm and pound against it with my hands, clawing him with my nails, desperate for release, but there is none. I find I can't struggle anymore and my last vision is of Sara lying crumpled on the floor in the hall. My only thoughts are of how I've failed her one more time.

**_Daniel_**

"Ba'al?" I asked incredulously. "As in...."

"As in the God, yes."

"And I'm supposed to believe this?"

He came up close to my face again and I try to back away, but I am prevented by the back of the chair. His eyes light up once again and I gulp back my fear. I probably shouldn't have asked.

"I know it is difficult for your inferior mind to comprehend, but I am, or rather was the last of the System Lords; a superior race of beings known as the Goau'ld."

"Uh....Okay." I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything when a noise catches Ba'al's attention and the garage door slowly begins to open. A black van enters and pulls up next to us and my captor smiles widely.

"Ah....your friends have arrived. Now we can truly get down to business."

"What? What friends, what are you talking about?" I can feel a panic begin to rise up in my chest. Did this madman somehow get to Sarah? Was she okay?

The front doors of the van opened and two more gigantic men got out, they too have the symbol on their forehead. A lightbulb goes off in my head and I recognize it from ancient Caananite depictions of their God Ba'al. Could this guy really be so deluded as to believe he was a God?

The men open the sliding door on the side of the van and pulled out two unconscious people. One a woman with short blond hair and the other a man with shaggy hair, peppered with a touch of gray. I was relieved to see that they were people I didn't know, but at the same time it only caused my confusion to mount. Why did he call these people my friends?

The big man that had been here with us all along found two more chairs and placed them beside me while the other two oafs dragged the newcomers to the chairs and tied them up like me. Their heads rolled to the side and they slumped against their restraints.

"Wake them up." Ba'al commanded his goons with a flick of his wrist. One man ran back to the van and produced a vial and syringe, measuring out a dose and injecting it into the woman then doing the same for the man. Slowly, the man and woman began to wake. They groaned and looked about. I could see that they too were just as confused as I was to be here, but too groggy to ask what was happening.

Ba'al again smiled and drew near.

"Captain Samantha Carter" He held up her chin to look closely at her face, she blinked blearily in confusion up at him then moved on to the man next to her. "and Colonel Jack O'Neill." With him, he grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back before tossing it back down.

"Now that we have the three of you together, we can begin." Ba'al's face took and a dark look of hatred and malice as he addressed us all, chilling me.

"You have no idea how long I have waited for this day."

To Be Continued....


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

_I just want to start out by apologizing to anyone who tried to read chapter 2 and found that I had posted the wrong chapter. Stupid me. Sorry about that. Anyway, I know this next chapter is kinda short, being Christmas and having the kids out of school leaves little time for writing, but I hope you like it. :)_

**Chapter 3**

**_Sam_**

"What do you mean ? Do you know us?" The young man on my left asked.

I forced my eyes to open, fighting against whatever drug the two henchmen had injected into me earlier when they grabbed me. I could tell we were in some kind of garage and I was flanked by two different men, both tied to chairs in a similar fashion as myself. The drug was wearing off quickly, but everything was still foggy and blurry as I lifted my head to get a better look at our captor. It may have been the drugs, but his voice held a dual and distorted tone and at one point, I thought I saw his eyes glow. That part definitely had to be the drugs.

"I suppose I do owe you a bit of an explanation." The well-dressed man began. "This may be confusing for your Tau'ri minds to comprehend, so I shall use small words." He looked directly at the older man seated on my right and smiled wickedly. "To put it simply, I am from the future."

"The....future?" The young man dared to ask, unbelieving. The older captive, The one I think I heard our kidnapper call Colonel O'Neill, snorted and was swiftly rewarded with a backhanded slap to the face by our abductor, spitting blood from a cut lip and throwing a malicious face. I kept quiet though I had so many questions running through my mind that I wanted to ask. It was obvious that this man was unstable at best and most likely a complete lunatic so there was no need in my mind to irritate him further.

Finally able to gain more control over my faculties, I stole a glance at the young man to my left. He looked to me as well, giving me a look that spoke volumes about how sane he believed our captor to be and I realized right away that I recognized him. He was the man Catherine was to meet, the one whose dossier I had read just before my abduction; Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Through the fog, a sudden realization washed over me. This all must have something to with the artifact. My resolved strengthened, I wasn't about to let this man get any information about the program from me, but he wasn't paying much attention to me as he continued speaking. I used his distraction in telling his story to work at the bonds behind my back. They were tight, but there was still a chance I could get them loose enough to break free.

"Yes, I am from the future." He continued, pacing back and forth as he recounted his story. "I understand that all of this is difficult to comprehend, so I shall start at the beginning. Many millenia ago, my race came to this planet, finding it rich in slaves and resources so we stayed for many centuries. Your people came to revere us as Gods, our superior technology and strength no match for your primitive ways. However, somehow your people were successful in a revolt that resulted in our ouster from your world, burying the Stargate, a device that allowed us to travel back and forth from your world, under the ground. Your people forgot about us until one day the Stargate was unburied and it's function revealed to humanity. You see, this device creates a stable wormhole, connecting one gate to another, making travel through million of light years across the expanse of the galaxy nearly instantaneous."

That must be the artifact, I thought. In order for him to know that, he might actually be telling the truth, no one outside of the program knew of its existence. My mind was reeling from the possibilities. Alien life, space travel, even time travel? We always suspected the ring was a transportation device, but could it really send people all of the way across the galaxy. Could it be that all that we had previously thought of as science fiction, might actually be fact? The ramifications were enormous, but I just didn't have the time to think about it all right then. Escape was more important.

"Now, you're no doubt wondering how I came to be from the future." The man kept walking and talking as though giving a lecture to kindergartners "The fact is, I was born several years from now, one of many clones of the God your people called Ba'al. However, I retain all of his memories, thoughts, feelings and for all intents and purposes, I am Ba'al. Myself, along with the other clones and my progenitor created a computer that could track the solar flares of suns near planets with Stargates on them, allowing us to pinpoint periods of time we could travel to through the wormhole the Stargate creates. Our original plan was to send one of us back to 1939 and to prevent your people from regaining control of the Stargate. I was chosen to be the first to go through on 'test-run'. Imagine my surprise when I ended up not in 1939, but rather in 1989, emerging into a warehouse on a base you call Area 51. Obviously our calculations must have been off. Luckily, I managed to escape with my Jaffa here, but I was unable to go back through the Stargate. Ever since, I have been trapped on this god-forsaken planet and in this backward time. Since things haven't changed, I must assume that my brother clones and the original have been unable to affect the course of history."

Solar flares. I had heard many theories about the possibilities of time travel and had even written a paper on it in graduate school. The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that something like this could be possible, that this man might be telling the truth.

"Uh....Saying we believe you," Daniel Jackson interjected. "which I'm still having a hard time doing......why would you do that? Why change history?"

"Because of you."

"Me?" he raised his eyebrows.

"No, not just you. Because of all of you. I used to have an empire; slaves, untold riches, ships, and power. My species dominated the galaxy. But in the future, you three are a part of a military team known as SG1; humans bent on destroying all that I and my kind had built. You were successful in bringing us down, but now I've come back in time to make sure you do not accomplish that this time around and I will be powerful once again." He looked at Colonel O'Neill again. I had a feeling that in the future, there was no love lost between those two.

We all looked at each other in bewilderment. Especially Dr Jackson, he seemed the most shocked to learn that he might be a part of any kind of military team.

"So, you're gonna kill us." The Colonel spoke up.

"Oh, I could. I certainly should in fact. But where is the fun in that? No, I have different plans. Especially for you, Colonel O'Neill. I'm going to have lot's of fun with you." He smiled wickedly again and spun on his heels, addressing his guards.

"Move them into the facility, I shall rejoin you later. I have much more I need to discuss with them, just not out here."

"Yes, my Lord." each of the big men intoned separately.

With a final appraising smile, Ba'al walked confidently to the black sedan and climbed in. The garage door opened again and the car backed up and out of the garage. Leaving us with the three guards. As much as I tried, I couldn't get my hands free, but I felt the need to try to escape at the very least.

As the large guards approached, I heard Dr. Jackson speak under his breath.

"This can't be good...."

A guard came up to the front of my chair and knelt down to untie me. That's when I decided to make my move. As my feet were unbound, I shot my foot up, landing it square between his legs, making solid contact with his crotch. It had the desired effect and the man went red in the face, groaning in pain as he fell down. By my side I could see that Colonel O'Neill had also decided to take advantage of the situation and was on his feet with the chair still attached to his back, swinging the legs around wildly as the guard attempted to subdue him.

Unfortunately, Daniel Jackson wasn't so lucky and his guard pulled a weapon and an energy beam arced out, hitting him. He then firing on Colonel O'Neill, who fell to the ground, chair and all. The last thing I remember was a blinding light and a flash of pain before everything went dark again.

**_Catherine_**

"There is a phone call for you, Catherine."

I set down my tea cup and looked up to see my assistant, Natalie enter the office with a stack of files, which she placed on my desk with a thud. I groan a little on the inside at seeing such a stack of work, but working for the military it came with the territory.

"Thank-you, Natalie. I'll take it in here." She nodded and exited the office as I reached for the phone receiver.

"Hello?"

"Ms. Langford, this General West."

"Oh yes, General. What can I do for you?"

"I just got a call from a Major Jonas Hanson," The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't place it right away before he continued. "He informed me that his fiancée, Captain Samantha Carter has gone missing."

"Missing?" I ask, shocked by the news, I had just spoken with her a couple of days ago before going to San Fransisco to see Dr. Jackson.

"Yes, he reported her missing when she failed to show for a lunch date. They found her car parked at a nearby garage, but she was nowhere to be found and there were signs of struggle at the scene."

"Oh God." Is all I can say.

"Is there anything Captain Carter was working on that may give us any clue as to her whereabouts?"

"I don't believe so, General. She's an expert in computers and technology as well as an astrophysicist and she has been with the project since we started two years ago. Last time I spoke with her, she was working computer system updates, nothing that I think anyone would want to kidnap her over, but given the secret nature of our work, anything is possible."

"We have another problem" He added.

"What's that?"

"I had a retired Colonel I reactivated for our project as well, but before I could inform him of his new assignment, his wife reports that he was kidnapped by two men in Air Force uniforms. She was knocked unconscious and has no idea where they may have taken him."

"And now Captain Carter is missing too." I feel a chill as I speak. "You don't think this is a coincidence, do you?"

"I don't believe in coincidences. I think someone has them both; someone who might be interested in our program. The question is why they would want them specifically and how they may have found out about it."

"You think there is a leak?"

"The thought crossed my mind."

"I find it very hard to believe that anyone on our staff would be capable of that."

"Like you said, anything is possible. Just keep your eyes and ears open for anyone suspicious."

"Yes, General." I agree uneasily. The thought of someone I worked with being a spy coupled with the worry I felt for my friend put a sour spot in the pit of my stomach. Then another thought occurred to me adding to my alarm.

"There is something else that you should know." I begin. "I am uncertain if this is related to Captain Carter and your Colonel's disappearance, but I had been expecting an archaeologist to join us here as a new hire. However, he never got on the plane and appears to have dropped off the face of the Earth. I thought at first he may have just decided to turn down my offer and perhaps left the country, but he was desperate for a job and had very little money to his name; I don't think he would have turned this down."

"Sounds pretty suspicious. We'll keep an eye out for him too. What was his name?"

"Dr. Daniel Jackson. I was hoping he could help us with the translations on the cover stones."

"Alright, Ms. Langford. We have some of our top guys working on this, hopefully we'll recover them soon."

"I hope so too, General."

"I'll call you as soon as I have more information."

"Please do." The general hung up and I held the receiver for a moment in thought, feeling helpless. I needed to do something, anything. I worked too hard to get this project up and running again for someone to come and ruin it all from the inside out. I may not be able to track down Sam on my own, but I might be able to do something about our plumbing problem.

"Natalie." I called out loudly to my assistant, knowing she was right on the other side of the door. She stepped in at my summons.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"I need personnel files." I told her.

"For whom?" She asked

"Everyone."

To Be Continued......


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 4**

**_Daniel_**

"I think he's coming around." I heard a female voice say.

"'Bout time." replied another voice, this one a male and sounding quite disinterested.

I groaned, my head splitting in two once again from that damn ray-gun thing. I figured it couldn't be too good for the brain cells to be hit like that so often. I ventured to open my eyes just as I felt a hand patting my cheeks.

"Ugh.." Is the most coherent thing I can utter.

"You okay?" I look into a set of deep blue eyes and she smiles down sympathetically at me.

"I'll live." I grumble from the floor, flinging an arm over my head to block the glare of the fluorescent lights overhead.

"My friends said 'Don't go to San Fransisco, you'll only be laughed at or worse'" I mumbled to myself for the most part, thinking out loud. "and I said 'How can things get any worse?' should have listened. Should have stayed in Chicago. This is definitely way worse. Now, not only have I lost my job and I'm the laughing stock of all my peers but I'm going to be killed by a man who thinks he's a God from the future. This is just perfect. Yeah, definitely should have stayed home."

I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Here, let me help you up." She offered. I'm not entirely sure I really wanted to get up, but she was already pulling on the back of my arm to assist me into a seated position.

"Thanks" I say before leaning forward to hold my head in my hands as it continued its throbbing unabated. "I'm really starting to hate those stun-gun thingies they have." I add wryly.

"Yeah, can't say I like them too much either." She agreed with me.

I look up again and notice she has a slight grin in her face and I can't help but smile back weakly before doing a double-take. I had been too distracted before in the garage to really take much notice of her, but now that I'm staring into her face, I'm taken off-guard by her features. Even in the blue dress uniform she wears she's quite beautiful with soft blond hair cut short but still in an attractive and feminine way and I can see an intelligence behind her eyes that's strikes me the most.

"Uh..hi..I'm, uh... Daniel by the way." I say not so gracefully, stumbling over my words and raising my head up all of the way. I hold out my hand in greeting and she takes it firmly and shakes it.

"I know."

"Uh, you do?" I ask in confusion. She closed her eyes and made a face that gave me the impression that she was giving herself the equivalent of a mental ass-kicking. I wondered if everyone knew me already.

"Sorry, I uh..you see...nevermind" She swiftly changed gears, deciding to introduce herself instead. "Captain Samantha Carter, but you can call me Sam."

"Okay...Sam." I smiled a little wider for her. "Normally, I would say 'Nice to meet you.' but under the circumstances...."

"Yeah, it's okay. I would have much rather have met you under better conditions as well." She agreed.

I looked over in the corner to where our other companion sat casually with one leg outstretched and one knee up to his chest as though this was just any other day where a psycho mad-man that claims to be an alien from the future is holding him and threatening him with torture. He was ignoring us, but I called over to him with a little wave trying to be friendly.

"Hi, there..." He turned and glared in response. I recalled his name from what Ba'al had said earlier. "It's uh, O'Neill, right?" He continued his glare. "You're a Colonel? Soooo... is that with the Air Force, Army?....."

"Air Force... retired." He replied succinctly before he turned away again and continued his silent reflections. I looked to Sam.

"What's his problem?" I asked. She merely shrugged. So much for making friends with him.

I looked around at our surroundings. It was a plain cell with four gray, cinderblock walls and little of anything else. I guess they weren't too concerned with our comfort. A steel-barred door locked us in and one of the beefy guards from before was standing nearby on the opposite side.

"So, I take it we are in some sort of prison cell." I stated.

"No shit Sherlock. Your powers of observation are astounding" O'Neill grumbled sarcastically. I could see already that he and I weren't going to be best of friends, I just hoped we could get along enough to figure a way out of this.

I sighed and closed my eyes against the headache that still lingered.

"So what can you tell us about this Ba'al?" Sam asked as if I she knew I would know. That threw me off a little, but then again, considering that she seemed to already know me somewhat earlier, I did my best to answer her.

"I don't know about _this_guy, but according to ancient Canaanite descriptions of Ba'al, he was a God of agriculture and nature. His name actually means 'Lord' and it was believed that he could create storms and cause the rain to fall with the sound of his voice, or in other words, thunder. But he's also rather demonized within the Hebrew texts of the bible. Ya see, followers of Ba'al frequently performed human sacrifice, sacred prostitution and it was a regular practice for them to kill small children and bury them under a house as it was being built in order to satisfy him. This didn't win the Canaanites too many friends in the region during the time the Bible was written. To add to that, he was also referred to as Ba'al Zebub by the Philistines or the 'Lord of the flies'. It was said that he had control over the swarms of locusts that frequently destroyed crops. It's also where also we get the derivation of demon named Beelzebub."

"Wow, that was a whole lot of information that is totally useless to helping us.." The colonel groused.

"That's who this guy thinks he is?" Sam asked me with a worried look.

"I think so." I reply.

"Wait, how do you know so much about him?" O'Neill asked.

"Well, I'm an archaeologist and I have a doctorate in Anthropology. I've been studying cultures, languages ancient myths and legends for many years and in fact, I was in ancient Canaan not that long ago on a dig...."

"All right already, I get it, ou're some kind of uber-geek. But do you ever stop talking?" The Colonel complained.

"How about you? Do you ever stop brooding?" I shot back. He gave me a deadly glare and I knew I should back down. There was a glint in his eyes that hinted at an underlying instability and deep-seeded anger that said 'Don't mess with me.'

I threw up my arms in frustration "Sorry, I'm just a little nervous here. Never been kidnapped before, you know."

Sam held up her hands, trying to placate us.

"Okay, Daniel, Sir. I think we need to focus" She started. "We need to find a way out of here. So far, I've only see three different guards and there are three of us..."

"Whoa....hold on, Captain." The colonel began pointing at me. "You really think this guy can take on one of those guys?" He pointed to the guard outside the door.

"Hey, I may not be in the military, but I'm not a complete wuss." O'Neill shook his head with a chuckle.

"What? I'm not. Apparently this Ba'al seems to think that I was a part of some kind of team with you two in the future...." I argued.

"Yeah, that's what makes this situation so much more unbelieveable. I mean, just look at you." He pointed "You couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag let alone this place. Have you ever even been in a fight before?"

Just as I was about the come back with a snappy retort to the grumpy Colonel, the two other guards from earlier came through the door at the end of the hall and approached our cell. I stood up as did Sam and O'Neill.

The bigger of the two pointed a finger in my direction and I tried to gulp back my immediate fear, but was unsuccessful.

"You."

"Me?" I asked pointing to my chest, knowing that it was useless to even ask.

"You will come now." They opened the cell door and each grabbed onto an arm. I knew it was useless to fight them, they were too big for me, but apparently the Colonel didn't get the memo. He shot out and flung an elbow into the gut of the nearest guard. Sam sprang into action as well, but was easily pushed back so forcefully that her head made contact with the back wall with a sickening thud.

"Sam!" I called out. I found the strength then to fight back alongside O'Neill. He was still throwing jabs and punches, but the third guard entered the melee and sent a fist to the gut of the Colonel that sent him doubling over. I struggled and kicked, but both guards had a firm hold on me as they dragged me out of the cell and slid the bars back in place, locking it tight with a final clink.

I gave up trying to break free as they pulled me along. O'Neill was right, I'm not much of a fighter. I am a wuss. _Way to go, Jackson._ I think. _You fail again._

**_Ba'al_**

I steepled my fingers as I waited patiently. I had been waiting six long years for this and now I finally have the three human members of SG1 in my possession. As I waited, I recalled how I first came to be on this planet. The plan had been to arrive in 1939 and prevent the humans from aquiring the Stargate, but finding myself walking through the gate into that warehouse in 1989 had been a shock at first and having little in my possession besides my hand device and three Jaffa had made matters more difficult.

However, it turned out that I was glad for my situation. Instead of having to wait fifty years like the original plan had been, I would merely have to wait until I had sufficiently built up my financial empire before I could track down the humans. Then I could use my knowledge of the future to defeat the other system Lords and rule the galaxy. Perhaps then, I would be satisfied.

After just six years I clawed my way from the ground up on this miserable planet. Using my sharp business acumen and perhaps a bit of intimidation from my hand device and my Jaffa, I was successful in amassing a fortune that would make most if not all Taur'i, deliriously jealous. But it wasn't enough. Not yet.

I had a new plan. One that went farther and was infinitely more ambicious than my progenator's plan.

Now that I had all the money I would ever need, my next step had been to find a sarcophagus and I knew exactly where to find was still asleep when I walked into the crypt that held her sarcophagus and the look of utter surprise and shock on her face as I pulled her out and stabbed her repeatedly had been well worth the expense that retrieving the sarcophagus in secret had been. I laughed as her host bled to death on the ground and when her symbiote emerged from the corpse, I held her in my hands. I could have killed her then, but placed her in a canopic jar instead to save her for myself. She was a queen after all and she would be useful for producing the children that would spread out over my empire after I defeated the System Lords. My seed would produce the next generation of Goau'ld System Lords with me as their Supreme Lord. The Galaxy would soon bow down at my feet.

I smiled in glee as my Jaffa entered and deposited Daniel Jackson on the floor in a heap. Now the next phase of my plan was coming together. They hoisted him up again and dragged him over to the wall I had set up for this occasion. His hands were shackled to the wall at a level that would only allow him to be on his knees. Appropriate I thought if one was to be speaking with a God.

In all sincerity, I never was one to actually believe I was a God, not like some of the other System Lords. But I did know that one could come as close to having the power of a God when compared to primitive species like the Tauriand that's what I craved. The power. It was more addictive than any drug could ever be. We goau'ld were notorious for becoming drunk on power, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. It was what made us strong.

Ra especially was one who had become so deluded as to believe he was truly a God. My only regret with this plan was acting before the humans could take care of him themselves. But it was of no matter, he could be easily taken care of. At this point in history, he is old and too lost in his own magnificence to think that anyone might make a move against him. Even though many of the System Lords feared him, I wasn't the only Goau'ld at this time that wanted him dead and finding an ally should be easy enough. After that there would be a power vacuum and I could take care of the rest of that, starting with the original Ba'al and going down the line from there. It would be much like a chess game but in reverse, killing the king first then picking off the rest of the pieces one by one.

But before I could eliminate the other System Lords, I would need to take care of the humans. Daniel Jackson looked up at me through his glasses, hair covering most of his face. Looking at this version of Dr. Jackson had been somewhat of a disappointment and would slow down my plans, but seeing those blue eyes staring back up at me strengthened my decision.

"Well. Dr. Jackson." I began. I could practically feel his fear and it was exhilarating. All that I had ever felt around him in the future had been contempt and defiance. This Daniel Jackson was almost trembling in his fright. I beamed at him. "We have a lot of work to do, you and I."

"We do?"

"Yes, you see. I stated before that I am a clone. The Ba'al from which I generate is still out there at this time. But, I have plans that have that just don't allow for his continued existence. I plan a re-birth of sorts. A new me for a new era."

"What do I have to do with that?" He asked.

"As I explained earlier, my species requires a host body. This body is an exact replica of the Ba'althat is already out in the universerse at this moment. I need to distinguish myself from him. So what better way to do that than to choose a new body."

I couldn't help by grin at seeing the color drain from Daniel Jackson's face, I was almost giddy with excitement as I could almost see the gears in his head spinning and coming to one inevitable conclusion.

"I have always admired your features and your intellect is second to none. That coupled together with my superior knowledge shall become an unstoppable force."

"You're insane. Do you actually want me to believe you are some kind of alien?"

"You still don't believe me, do you? I suppose some evidence to convince you is in order." I waved to one of my Jaffa to come forward.

"The young of my species matures within a pouch of the Jaffa, our most trusted servants and warriors. When they fully mature they are then transferred to a human host body." I lifted the shirt of my Jaffa and he remained still as I reached inside of the pouch that held his symbiote and grabbed a hold of the slippery young one within. From the corner of my eye I could see the disgusted and terrified expression of my captive and I couldn't help by grin again. This was almost too much fun. I pulled the baby from it's warm home and held it aloft near the shocked archaeologist's face.

"This is what my species actually looks like. This is what I look like only larger and I inhabit this body near the base of the head, controlling all actions."

"What happens to the host?" He asked with a glare.

"The host remains, but your Tauri minds are too weak to resist our superior strength. The Goau'ld always wins the battle for control. Eventually, the host mind accepts this and retreats to the subconscious."

"You can't have my body." He stated defiantly, leveling his eyes with my own. I smiled at him; finally some of that Daniel Jackson spirit was coming through.

"I will have it." I stated pointedly and with a sudden wave of anger, dropping my smile and getting into his face. These humans were always so damned smug, even when they knew the odds were against them. I found myself unable to control my rage and landed at punch into his abdomen. He coughed and panted in pain, his face red. I backed off and regained my composure.

"Unfortunately, your condition as it is right now, is unacceptable. I was somewhat unprepared to see you like this and we will need to improve your current appearance. In the future, you must have spent a little more time honing your physical strength after you joined SG1; ."

"You are weak, thin and this hair will need to be taken care of. But, all this can be remedied rather easily. My Jaffa here will make you strong. They will put some meat on those bones and you will build muscle and strength. As for this hair...." I flipped the hair out of his face and he recoiled.

I pulled out my knife, a rather large one with an extremely sharp blade and grabbed a lock of hair, pulling on it in a way I knew would cause the most pain. He grunted and I knew it hurt, but he didn't call out as I chopped it off and grabbed another lock, chopping at the hair until it lay in a pile by his knees. When I finished, I smiled. It would need to be trimmed again before I took possession of his body, but it would suffice for now.

"You will start your conditioning today. If you do not follow what my Jaffa instruct you to do or work as hard as you can to craft that body into the shape I see fit then I will kill the other two prisoners, slowly and painfully starting with the female. Now, I know you Dr. Jackson. Even though you don't know Colonel O'Neill and Samantha Carter very well at this point, I know you would never allow anyone to suffer because you decided to defy me. You wouldn't want their blood on your hands, now would you?"

He panted in anger, but I knew he would do what he could to keep O'Neill and Carter safe. I signalled for my Jaffa to come and take him with a flick of my hand. I watched as they dragged him away to begin his conditioning and I knew they would be brutal with their training. It might take a few weeks maybe more, but it wouldn't be too long before he reached the peak physical shape that I desired in a host. I had waited this long already, I could wait a little more. After all, if I am anything, it is patient.

To Be Continued........


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

_Sorry it took me so long to get around to updating this. I keep getting distracted with other stories that pop into my head, but I'm back to concentrating on just this story for now. :)_

**Chapter 5**

**_Sam_**

"You okay, Captain?"

I groaned as I tried to sit up. I must have hit the wall and blacked out momentarily when I attempted to attack the guards that were taking Daniel away. In hindsight, it may have been a bad decision, but being military, I felt the need to at least try to protect him and I know the Colonel felt the same. My head throbbed and dizziness threatened to overtake me, but strong hands grabbed me by the elbow and helped me to sit up right.

"Thanks, sir." I forced a little smile that was in all actuality most likely a grimace for the Colonel, who for the first time showed some concern towards either me or Daniel "I'll be fine."

I leaned back against the wall while O'Neill went back to his corner, flopping down. For some reason, I felt the need to strike up a conversation with the Colonel.

"What do you think they're doing with Daniel, Sir?"

"What do you think, Captain?" He started bitterly. "I doubt they're going to throw him a party."

So, maybe the conversation was a bad idea too. An uncomfortable silence stretched between us for a few minutes until he surprised me by speaking up.

"So, do you believe all this crap about this Ba'al guy being a time-traveling alien from the future?"

"Well, I know it's kinda hard to believe, but anything is possible, sir. Theoretically speaking, time travel isn't impossible just highly improbable, especially since we lack sufficient technology to...."

"Ask a simple question..." He complained, obviously he didn't want a lecture in theoretical physics.

"Sorry, sir"

"What did you say you do in the Air Force, Captain?"

"Um...I didn't, sir" I replied and the colonel sighed in frustration.

"Okay, so what do you do?"

"I'm a theoretical astrophysicist. I work on deep space radar telemetry." It was only a half-truth, the cover for the program had been necessary for it to remain secret, but every time I said it out loud it was hard to keep a straight face and most people that knew me, knew that I was lying and keeping what I was working on a secret, but didn't push, knowing that I most likely couldn't talk about it.

"Right....That's a cover if I've ever heard one. Look, if we're going to make it out of here we're going to have to be honest with each other. For some reason, this guy thinks we're a team in the future and I doubt the Air Force would send me with traipsing over the galaxy with a geeky archaeologist and a scientist that studies deep space....whatever crap you just said. There's more here that you're not saying." His eyes lit up and he gave me an intense glare.

"I'm sorry, sir. What I work on is top secret and strictly need to know. With all due respect, I don't even know you, how can I even be certain that you are indeed a colonel?" I tried to explain. He only grew more angry and indignant, raising his voice.

"Captain, we've just been kidnapped! Those brutes out there are most likely going to be back pretty soon and they don't strike me as the kind of guys that just want to talk things out. So, if I'm going to be tortured, I'd like a heads up as to why!" He nearly shouted. "Look, I've got a wife at home....and she's been through enough hell lately....." He turned away in frustration, unable to go on further.

I put my head down to think. Ba'al had already mentioned the ring. He called it a Stargate and I guess that was as good a name as any we could come up with it, so maybe it would be best for me to just let him in on what I knew. We were in this mess together anyway and it was only fair that he know why and perhaps if I told him, he wouldn't be as hostile and we might be able to work together in order to find a way to escape. Besides, he already knew I was lying about the deep space radar telemetry, I'd never win his trust if I continued that charade.

"Alright sir, but what I have to tell you is classified top secret, normally I 'd have you sign a non-disclosure agreement, but...."

"Captain, just get on with it already.." He interrupted again impatiently.

"Right, Sir. I suppose you deserve to know as much about this as I do. So anyway, back in the thirties an artifact was uncovered in Egypt. It was a large ring made out of material that is unknown here on Earth. Now, there are symbols all around this ring with an inner track that spins and there are seven chevrons that we believe correspond to a specific symbol on the ring. It's our belief that the seven symbols would each represent a specific coordinate in three-dimensional space. Once all of these symbols are engaged in a certain order, it might represent an 'address' of sorts. A destination to which a person might be able to transverse vast distances in mere seconds. We know that the ring had been activated before, once in 1939 on board a cargo ship as it was being shipped across the Atlantic to America and once again in 1989, both of those dates, Ba'al mentioned. The first time, left a hole in the side of the ship it was traveling and four men were reported dead, the second time was at area 51 where the ring was being stored. I don't know all the details of either activation, but it's possible that Ba'al is telling the truth. He just might be an alien from the future. Of course, this is all just speculation. I can only guess at how this technology works since we actually haven't been able to get it to work completely yet."

"Why not?"

"We have a set of cover stones that were found over top of the ring that has six symbols, but we're pretty sure we need one more to make it work. That's why I think Daniel Jackson is here with us. He was supposed to be recruited for our program to help translate the cover stones and maybe help us find the last symbol."

"Well, I guess that explains a lot about why you two are here, but not about me."

"Perhaps you were to be recruited as well, sir. General West was said to be interested in increasing the military oversight of the project the closer we got to getting the artifact to work."

"Did you say General West? General David West?"

"Yes, sir. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, from my black ops days." He grumbled to himself. "Explains alot. He just can't leave it alone...He would go and pull some shit like this...."

"Sir?"

"Forget it, Captain." He was silent after that, turning away from me, lost in his thoughts and making it clear that he was tired of talking. I laid my head back against the wall again and closed my eyes. My headache was dissipating a bit, but a rhythmic throbbing behind my eyes remained. But my pain was overshadowed by my concern over Daniel and about what might be happening to him as we sat helplessly in this cell.

My thoughts also wandered to Jonas; by now he would most likely have half the Air Force out looking for me when I didn't show up for lunch. Certainly Catherine and General West would be searching as well, but would they know where to look? We don't even know where we are. If we were to get out of here, we were going to have to rely on ourselves.

"We need to come up with a plan, sir."

"Doh! Now, why didn't I think of that!." He replied sarcastically, slapping himself over the side of his head. "Well, you're the genius here, got any ideas, Captain?" He asked.

"Not yet, sir." I admitted. "I was kinda hoping you might have some."

"Nope." He answered succinctly.

"Well, then sir, I hope Daniel has some when he gets back."

"Yeah, if he gets back."

**_Daniel_**

I half walked and was half dragged back to the cell. I had no idea how long I had been gone and I don't think I had ever been so exhausted before. My stomach was still cramping from my last involuntary episode of vomiting, my arms shaking, legs and lungs burning after the grueling workout Ba'al's henchmen or Jaffa as he called them, had put me through. We ran forever, or at least for a guy like me who had never felt the need to run other than when I was late class back in college, it felt like it. Then there was the endless series of squats, lunges, sit-ups and push-ups they forced me to do, all the while mocking my inability to perform as many as they demanded of me and knocking me around when they felt I wasn't working hard enough.

Tossing me unceremoniously back inside the cell, I collapsed to the floor.

"Owww" I groaned, rolling over to my side, too exhausted to do much more than roll onto my back.

"Pathetic, Tauri." They laughed before locking me in with the Colonel and Sam, still laughing as they left and seeming to enjoy my weakness. However, I was getting used to that particular insult from my two 'trainers' and I'd been called worse in high school, so it didn't really hurt me that much and definitely not as much as the workout. How Ba'al was expecting me to get in shape in just a few weeks was insane and way beyond me. I could count on my hand the number of times I had actually worked out on purpose. Then again, I could only hope that he would still find my body 'unacceptable', as he called it, then perhaps his plan to abscond with it for his own nefarious schemes might be thwarted. However, that might also mean that he'd just kill me or the others instead, another prospect I really wasn't looking forward to.

"Daniel!" Sam came to my side with a worried look. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." I groaned, not at all feeling that way when the sting of my bruises swept across my back as I lay on the floor. The Jaffa had found hitting me with a night stick when I slowed down on the run to be an effective way to keep me going, but it seemed more like they were getting some sort of perverse joy out of watching me falter whenever they smacked me with it.

"There's an understatement if I ever heard one. You don't look too fine." She sat me up and I hissed at the sudden movement from the floor. Concerned, she looked me over for injuries, lifting my shirt and inhaling a bit at the sight of my back, but she seemed a little relieved to not find any serious contusions. Then her eyes went to my hair and I saw a twinge of remorse. It really wasn't such a big deal to me to have it cut off as I never really cared much about my hair and the only reason it was so long was because I just failed to keep up with regular barber visits, but seeing Sam's disappointment at my new look was a little disheartening and made me wonder how bad Ba'al's little trim was. I put a hand to my head, feeling the choppy layers. If it looked as bad as it felt, then there was no doubt why Sam was giving me that look.

"What happened?" She asked in sympathy.

"Long story short..... "Ba'al doesn't like my hair or my body.... so he has decided that I need to change them." I answered more sarcastically than I had intended. "Oh yeah, by the way, he really is an alien, so are our guards." I added flippantly.

"Yeah right, how do you know?" The Colonel asked skeptically.

"Because, Ba'al was kind enough to show me what lives inside his guards stomachs." I shot back at the Colonel in frustration. The man could certainly rub me the wrong way and I barely knew him. I fought a wave of revulsion as I recalled the sight of Ba'al reaching into the pouch that housed the slimy thing in his Jaffa's abdomen. "He was telling the truth; he's some kind of ....of parasite. He's actually some sort of snake-like creature or something like that and he takes over a person's body for his own use and now he wants my body so he can take over the galaxy, but he won't until I've beefed up enough for his tastes."

The Colonel chuckled at that statement, I wasn't sure if he was amused by my predicament or the absurdity of our situation in general, either I didn't appreciate it much. He obviously didn't think much of me because I wasn't like him. I was no soldier, I was just a nerd in his opinion; a useless civilian that was only complicating any hope of escape.

"We won't let that happen." Sam said with all sincerity, I gave he a smile in gratitude for her concern but I found it hard to share her confidence. I don't think I ever felt so screwed in my life and that was saying a lot after that last lecture I gave in San Francisco.

"Did they take you outside?" The Colonel asked as though he had a sudden idea. Now that he mentioned it. I was glad he asked. The Jaffa had taken me outside for a run around the perimeter of the facility and I did my best to take in our surroundings. I was in agony at the time, but I did remember quite a few important aspects of where we might be.

"Yeah, we're pretty isolated and the whole place is surrounded by tall fences. There are plenty of trees and I could see mountains in the distance, but they couldn't be more than fifty miles away. Now, if I had to guess by the position of the sun, they would be north of us. I didn't see any other buildings nearby, but I could see a road to the west of us. I also think we're in Colorado.

"What makes you think that and why on God's green Earth didn't you just say that in the first place?" The Colonel questioned in irritation.

"The mountain in the distance looks an awful lot like Pikes Peak to me, but I'm not certain, I've only seen photos of it; never actually been to Colorado before."

"If we are within sight of Pikes Peak, then we're close by." Sam suddenly interjected.

"Close by what?" I asked feeling like I had missed out on a whole lot while I was out with Ba'al and the Jaffa.

"The Artifact." She answered as if I should know then clarified when I gave her a clueless face. "The Stargate."

To Be Continued......


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 6**

**_Jack_**

Damn West.

I should have known he would try to pull me back. I told him repeatedly that I was through with the military. Even though I had always enjoyed my work, the excitement, the danger and the feeling of accomplishment when a mission when the way it was supposed to, all that changed after Charlie died.

I died too that day; only my body refused to die as well. No longer did I have the energy or the drive to continue on in the Air Force. . I retired for Sara's sake I told everyone. But the truth was, I just didn't care about anything anymore. It all seemed so meaningless now. The Air Force and everyone else in the world could just go to hell for all I cared.

'You'll be back.' is all General West said as he reluctantly signed off on my retirement packet only a month after Charlie died. He never wanted me to retire; I was his go-to man when a mission was too difficult or too dangerous for anyone else to accept. 'Not a snowball's chance in hell.' is what I wanted to say to the man at the time, but I kept my tongue in check. Maybe if I had told him off back then he wouldn't have even considered dragging my ass back into active duty and I wouldn't be in this mess with the two misfits of science sitting across from me.

Currently, 'my nerds' as I had come to think of them, were discussing the 'artifact' or 'Stargate' I guess was what they were going to call it now. Carter let Jackson in on the top secret program she was involved in and I only half-listened to their conversation.

"So what exactly was written on the cover stones?" He asked Carter.

"I'm not an expert in ancient Egyptian; I only know that it refers to the artifact as Ra's 'Doorway to Heaven' I'm not sure how Ba'al came up with 'Stargate' though"

"Actually, it sounds like a pretty easy mistranslation, especially if whoever was translating it was using Budge. I'd love to get a look at it." He looked almost wistful in his desire to take a look at the thing. I found it hard to believe that anyone could find stones so interesting.

"Well, if we can find a way out of here, you can." Carter smiled back at him.

Those two seemed to be hitting it off pretty well, but could really care less about making friends at the moment. I just needed to get out of there. The instant replay of Sara falling after those two behemoths hit her with that stun-gun kept repeating itself over and over in my head. While I had stopped caring about what happened to me long ago, seeing her laying on the floor of our home, hurt and helpless, left my blood boiling in anger towards this Ba'al asshole. I vowed to myself that I would do just about anything to see him laying in a pool of blood at my feet. I never enjoyed killing, sure it had been a necessary part of my job, but most of the time time it was either kill or be killed; however, with this guy I could make an exception. I would enjoy taking his life if only I could find a way to get at him.

Still thinking about Sara, I came to the conclusion that I was still desperately in love with her. But, to say that things between had been strained between us lately would be the understatement of the century. We barely spoke anymore and every time she looked at me, I could see the pain, hurt and most of all the blame in her eyes.

I deserved all of her anger though.

It was my gun.

My fault.

I was the one that left it loaded. Charlie would never would have died if I had been more careful. She never had to say those words out loud as I could almost hear her screaming them from the inside by her coldness towards me. There were times when I wished she would explode on me instead of all of the passive crap and just get all the anger out. Perhaps then she would leave me and hate me forever as she should. Then I could finally do what should have been done months ago; pay for my sins. End my life the way Charlie's ended.

But now I have a new mission before I can do that save these two geeks then kill Ba'al. Nothing else really mattered than making sure my captor knew that when he messed with me or the people I loved then he was going to die and if I died trying to do it, then it just saved me the trouble of having to do it myself later.

I was growing anxious for some action and it was hard to sit still. I spied our guard, or Jaffa as Jackson called them. There was only one outside our cell at the moment and he was armed with just one of the stun guns they used before on us. I had no idea if the weapons could be set to 'kill' like a phaser from Star Trek, but so far they appeared to be non-lethal. I just needed a way to get the guard to notice us and get close enough. Perhaps I'd be able to disarm him through the bars or maybe I just needed a way for him to open the door. It was more than a long-shot, but I had to try.

The nerds were still going on and on about cover stones and hieroglyphics and drifting into other subjects that went well over my head when I finally decided that I had had enough of talking and it was time to get off my rump and do something.

"Pst....Jackson." I called out to the archaeologist.

"Um, yeah?" He turned to me.

"C'mere." I stood up and he stood as well. I motioned him closer to the bars. The Jaffa would need to be in full view of the spectacle I had planned if this was to work.

"What is it, Colonel?" He asked.

"Are you two ever going to shut up the hell up?"

He narrowed his eyes at me and Carter stood up as well, but I motioned her back with my hand. Jackson didn't seem to take notice of that.

"We're trying to piece together why we're here, hopefully we can come up with a plan to get us out of here." He replied, growing irritated. But it wasn't enough yet, not for what I needed.

"Yeah right, like that could actually help us." I countered. "As if rationalizing the problem will just make it go away. You're babbling is getting us nowhere."

"What exactly are you trying to say here?" His voice began to raise just a notch. Man, he was a tough cookie to rile up. Lesser men would have already been throwing the first punch.

"Maybe I think all of your talk is useless and we don't have a chance in hell of getting out of here because you're too much of a _wimp_ to be of any help to us." I gave him a little shove, but he still didn't fight back.

"What are trying to pull here, Colonel?" He asked testily, moving in closer to my face. I could see it in his eyes that he was doing his best to hold back his anger, but that's not what I wanted. I needed him to hate me at this moment. But damn, I was going to have to hit below the belt to get him to react physically.

"What are you doing, Sir?" Carter asked.

"Stay out of this, Captain." I called out to her, waving her away with my hand, keeping my focus on Jackson. "I'm saying that all of your science and speculation isn't going to help us, we need action and you're just not the action type, are you? You're not even man enough to hit me. Even Carter over there has more balls than you. Hell, even your mother probably has more balls than you."

Finally, the 'ol mama insult did the trick. It never fails.

I saw that true spark of anger that's hard to define with words but let's you know exactly when you have pushed a man beyond his breaking point. His fist clenched before he probably even knew that he had done it and I was unsurprised by the punch flying at me. I let it make contact with my jaw. Surprisingly, it stung like a sonuvabitch, especially for a guy I outweighed by at least thirty pounds. I barreled into him as he rained more punches against me and I kept up the appearance of the fight, allowing him to make contact with my face and chest several times and even getting in a few of my own hits, but I kept them light so they wouldn't do much damage.

I saw our Jaffa react to the sudden violence within our cell and just as I deflected another fist coming at me, I saw the guard open the cell door with his weapon in hand.

Here was my chance at last.

Before the Jaffa could get off a shot, I gave Jackson a mighty shove and sent him sprawling to the floor just as I dove for the Jaffa. I think Carter caught on quick to my plan and was in action as well, going for the Jaffa's weapon while I attempted to fight the gigantic alien. He tossed a fist towards my brow that made the lights grow dim and sent sparks flying across my eyes before he picked me up bodily and threw me down to the floor next to Jackson.

Before I could regain my senses and get back into the fray, a high pitched whine sounded out and a flash of light shot towards the Jaffa. The energy enveloped him like a lightning bolt and he fell to his knees before crashing completely to the ground with a thud.

Carter stood with the weapon in hand for a moment, seemingly surprised that she got it to work but it didn't last long and she wasted little time rushing to our sides and helping me and Jackson up

"Thanks, Captain." I told her gratefully, impressed by her grace under pressure. I felt a new found respect for the astrophysicist and I realized then that she was more than just a pretty face and an impressive IQ. She was a warrior too.

"Daniel, Colonel....You two okay?"

"We're great, Carter." I answered in a sarcastic tone. Jackson shot me an angry look and groaned as he got up.I felt bad for tricking him into fighting me, especially since he was still sore from his encounter with the Jaffa earlier. However, there would be time for apologies later.

"Let's get out of here before our friend wakes up." I ordered.

Neither one of them needed much prodding to get their asses in gear and we ran down the corridor to another door at the end. One turn of the knob and it was clear that it was locked as well.

"Wonderful...." I groaned.

"Let me see it, sir." Carter went to the lock, it was one of those locks that required a code and at first I had the sinking feeling that she was going to have to take it apart and mess with the wiring or something like that in order to open it, but she surprised me when she confidently punched in four numbers and the door sprung open.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"I watched them open it when they took Daniel, Sir."

"Good job." Jackson praised her with a grin and a pat on the back. She shot him a quick satisfied smile. I could only shake my head at the geek-love going on between them.

"Alrighty, kids. Time to blow this Popsicle stand." Carter handed me the weapon and it felt good to have it in my hands. I felt more in control with it's power at my disposal.

I took off down another corridor with the other two in tow, so far there weren't any more guards, but who could say when they might show up. We passed by several doors until I heard the distinct sound of raised voices coming from the other hallway.

I ran to the next door and opened it, motioning for Jackson and Carter to follow me inside. We could hide in the darkened room until the guards passed, then we could head out again when the coast was clear. I knelt down next to the door and waved at the other two do the same, but something had caught Jackson's attention and he stood motionless in the middle of the room.

"Oh my god." He breathed.

"Jackson, get down!" I hissed in a whisper to him. He ignored me and I turned to see what had captured his curiosity. He had walked over to another corner of the room and I couldn't see what he was looking at from my angle.

"What the hell is that?" Carter asked, joining Jackson. The only source of light in the room came from an overhead lamp where they were standing. Annoyed by their distraction, I came beside them to remind them of the fact that we were supposed to be escaping right at that moment. But when I came close I nearly fell over at the sight that greeted me.

"Holy Shit." Was all I could get out. In a fish tank before us swam a sort of snake, but it wasn't like any I had ever seen before and I doubted it came from anywhere near Earth. It's mouth opened and gaped at us in a silent scream, beating against the glass. If I didn't know better, I would have said that it looked angry.

Jackson put a hand against the glass. I slapped it away.

"Don't touch it."

"It's in a tank, Colonel. I don't think it can hurt us." He reasoned.

"We don't know what that thing is, best to leave it alone."

"It's the alien. It's just like the one Ba'al showed me, only bigger. This must be an adult." He surmised.

"Damn, it's ugly." I added. I got no arguments there.

"What's it doing in here?" Carter asked.

"She's waiting for you, Captain Carter." Came a voice from the other side of the room. _Shit!_I swore internally. Across expanse of the darkened room stood Ba'al, his face alight with amusement.

To Be Continued......


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

_A little bit of a longer chapter here for you this time. I hope you like it :)_

**Chapter 7**

**_Catherine_**

I threw down another file onto my desk and sighed in frustration. I was getting nowhere fast. I had spent almost the entire day looking over every single member under our programs' personal files and I still couldn't see how anyone could possibly be a leak.

In all actuality, I knew that finding who may be a mole in our organization through employment records alone was most likely a fruitless occupation. But without any other means to help the investigation into Sam's and Dr. Jackson's disappearance, I felt the need to at least do something.

Getting up from my desk I stretched and headed for the door. I needed some to get out of my head for a while and I hoped going for a bit of a walk might refresh me.

It was late at night and it was quiet for the most part, the corridors mostly abandoned. I wandered the halls of our underground facility without any destination in mind and I was unsurprised to find myself near the room that housed the cover stones.

Passing through the doors I made my way to the stones, passing my hands over the once smooth but now weathered surface. As plain as day I could still recall the first time I laid eyes on these when I was a little girl in Egypt. What an exciting trip that had been. Mother had been ill all summer so father had taken it upon himself to take me with him on this dig so she could recover in peace.

I remember the electric excitement in the air when the stones had been uncovered, but most of all I had been fascinated by all of the little things that had been found at the same time. Necklaces, bracelets, rings and even the shards of pottery that were left behind. Each piece was something that someone had cherished, something they had used in their everyday lives or something so special to them that they had taken it with them to their grave.

Perhaps that is why at eight years old, I had been drawn to the necklace I wore now. It was as though the original owner of it had called out to me over the ages and said 'Here, take this and remember the life I used to have. Keep it safe and pass on my memory.' I had every intention of handing it down to my own son or daughter when they grew up, but I never did have the opportunity to have children.

The only man I had ever loved had been dead for decades now. The events surrounding his death had always been a mystery and I never had been able to fully move on since then. No man could take his place. My Earnest had been my world and he had been my sole motivating factor in getting the government to take notice of the artifact again. It was in his memory and for all of the work that he and my father had poured into the research on the ring that motivated my struggle to get the government to re-open the research into the 'Doorway to Heaven'.

I touched my necklace at the memory while staring absently at the cover stones. It had taken years to get to this point. The point where we were so close to finally unraveling all of the secrets of the ring, yet we were still so far away. The answer had to be close; I could feel it, but we still weren't seeing it. That's why I had come to the conclusion that we needed fresh eyes and a new perspective on things.

For weeks I searched for the right candidate; for the person that might be able to help us to fully and accurately translate the cover stones. Our own linguists had done their best, but were still scratching their heads trying to find the final piece to the puzzle that would lead us to the final symbol on the ring.

It had been by chance really, that I had came across an article written nearly two years ago by Dr. Daniel Jackson. He had gone into great detail regarding his theories on the pyramids, even suggesting that there was the possibility that the pyramids had been build earlier than first thought and perhaps not the creation of the Pharaohs at all. They were groundbreaking theories to say the least, but controversial and contrary to conventional thinking. But his ideas were so close to what had been discovered by my own father, but had been kept a secret for so many years. I knew I needed to learn more about Dr. Jackson before I even finished reading his publications.

The more I dug into his past, the more intrigued I had become with the young man. He had been orphaned at an early age, grew up in the foster care system in New York City yet still managed to graduate high school at the age of sixteen and earn his first doctorate in archeology by the age of twenty-two. He then went on the receive two more doctorates and it was reported that he could speak and read over twenty languages.

The only problem was that no one believed him.

Most called him a crackpot and he was shunned by the majority of the archaeological community. His Grandfather's own decent into madness regarding ancient South American crystal skulls had been unfairly been a source for much of the young man's dismissal and he was teetering on the edge of ruin. I couldn't allow that to happen, especially when I saw him speak so passionately about what he believed in during that lecture in San Fransisco, even though he had to know that it would most likely end his career in archeology.

So lost in my own thoughts on the cover stones before me that I never heard or saw anyone else in the room until a shadow moved across the surface before me. In surprise I spun around and found myself face to face with Dr. Meyers.

"Oh, Gary." I said, startled "I didn't see you there." .

"I'm sorry, Catherine. I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You didn't" I replied. "I was just passing by and thought I would stop in and see how things were going."

"Oh, you know... They're.... going." He sighed moving back to the drawing board and running a hand through his hair. I had to feel a twinge of sympathy for him, he had been working on the cover stones for nearly two years but had yet to come up with the final piece to our collective puzzle. The military was breathing down our necks for results and that had been one of my primary motivators for going out and recruiting Daniel Jackson. No doubt, Dr. Meyers was feeling a bit pushed out by my recruitment of the new archaeologist.

"Anything new?" I asked

"Not really. I've gone back and forth between Budge and few other techniques to get an accurate translation, but a few of these glyphs are still giving me some trouble."

"You should go home. It's late." I suggested. He shook his head wildly from side to side.

"No, no, no...I need to figure this out. Sometimes I feel like the answer is right here in front of me but I just can't see it."

"Perhaps, some fresh eyes will help you."

"Like another linguist?" He asked dejected.

He never had to say it, but I knew he was upset that I felt the need to bring in Dr. Jackson. Dr. Meyers was a good archaeologist and knew his ancient Egyptian history better than almost anyone I had come across, but his linguistic skills left much to be desired. Not only that, but Gary always was too proud to accept help. However, we needed to find an answer soon if we wanted to keep studying the artifact, otherwise the military was likely to cut funding and our 'Doorway to Heaven' would be crated up, perhaps for good this time.

"I only meant that you need sleep and in the morning you'll be more likely to see what you're missing."

"I'm sorry, Catherine. I know.... I think I'm just letting the pressure get to me sometimes. I just can't afford to lose this job, you know. It's all I have."

"Don't worry, no one is losing their job tonight, so you might as well go home."

"Alright. But what about you? Don't you ever need rest?"

"It's hard to rest knowing that Sam is out there and needs help."

"I know what you mean. It's hard to believe someone would kidnap her. Why would they do that?"

Gary looked genuinely despondent with that last remark, almost to the point of tears. I knew he and Sam had worked on a project or two, but they had never been close friends and her work tended to revolve around the technology of the artifact rather than the history like Dr. Meyers. I had no idea why her disappearance would hit him so hard.

"What's wrong, Gary?" I asked putting a hand to his shoulder. He shrugged it off, suddenly embarrassed.

"Nothing, sorry." He now seemed anxious to leave and went to his briefcase sitting on the desk and packed it up."You're right, I should go."

Gary's strange behavior had me worried. I had never seen him act like this before. Perhaps it really was just the pressure we were all under like he said. I would have let it go at that and thought no more of it if it hadn't been for the last thing he said to me.

"This whole thing is like a bad dream ya know, none of this should be happening....You think she'll be okay?.... I mean, I just hope.... she isn't hurt in anyway." His eyes reflected something that disturbed me as he stumbled over his words. Maybe I was reading too much into his concerns, but it was almost as if he was feeling guilty for her disappearance.

"I certainly hope so too" I told him before he went out the door.

I watched his retreating back, and my stomach churned. Rationally, I had no evidence or reason to think that anything was amiss and I certainly didn't want to even think that Gary might be our leak. However, it was hard to ignore my gut and that nagging little voice in the back of my head that said I needed to look deeper. Hesitantly, but knowing what I had to do, I took off for my office; there was I call I had to make to General West.

**_Daniel_**

Seeing Ba'al stand in the doorway with a smug look of satisfaction and the lecherous way he looked at Sam as he told her that the snake in the tank was for her, made me want to do nothing less than wrap my hand around his throat. I could honestly say that I ever really hated anyone before, but without reservations I had to admit that I was beginning to hate Ba'al.

Beside me, O'Neill tensed and didn't hesitate to lift the weapon in his hand and fire. The energy from the gun shot out towards Ba'al, but instead of it enveloping him and rendering him unconscious, he merely smiled as the energy dissipated around him, leaving him unharmed.

"You weapon is useless, O'Neill." He lifted his hand, showing us all a golden glove-like bracelet of sorts he wore on his over his fingertips, encircling his hand all the way down to his wrist. "This device protects me and unfortunately for you, it does so much more than that as well."

Before any of us knew what was happening, Ba'al held his palm out and took aim at the Colonel. A crystal centered within the middle of his palm glowed bright and flashed. An unseen force pulsed out from the device and O'Neill went flying backward to end of the room until he collided with the back wall, landing hard on the floor in an unmoving heap.

Ba'al turned his attention back to us with a gleeful look.

"Now where were we? Ah yes...Meet Hathor, Captain Carter. She is a queen amongst my people and I intend for her to give me many children and for you to be her host."

I immediately remembered the legends of Hathor, especially one where Hathor requested from her father, Ra to allow her to destroy humankind for transgressing against the Gods. I shuddered to think that the creature swimming in the tank behind me might be the basis of those legends, but even worse than that was thinking that Ba'al wanted to put that thing in Sam.

"I think she will be very grateful to have such a lovely body for her own." Ba'al went on to say ogling her. "But, she was injured recently when I had to remove her from her previous host. So, we must wait until she has fully healed before I give you to her."

"That's not going to happen." Sam replied vehemently, backing away. I wasn't about to let it happen either.

Ba'al stepped forward, approaching us and touched one of his gold-tipped fingers to Sam's chin menacingly with a look that made my skin crawl. I could only imagine how Sam was feeling, but judging by the look of utter disgust on her face, I had a pretty good idea.

Perhaps it was the male in me that decided that I needed to protect Sam and seeing Ba'al touch her so intimately sent me into a rage that I still can't quite explain. Fighting him was going to be useless. I had no weapon and chances are that I wouldn't get very far in hand-to-hand combat with him, so I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I backed up slightly while Ba'al was still preoccupied with Sam and made contact with the fish tank with my back.

Channeling my anger, I flung my shoulder forward then slammed it backwards into the glass of the tank, as hard as I could, painfully making hard contact with it, sending me and it falling to the floor. With a mighty crash, I landed on the tank as the glass shattered and water shot out in all directions. Suddenly soaked, I felt a sharp pain and realized a large shard of glass had embedded itself deeply into lower back. The snake Ba'al called Hathor screeched loudly, hurting my ears with its high-pitched squeal as it flopped around on the ground beside me. I attempted to get up or at least wriggle away from it until a black heel made contact with it's head, crushing it. It screamed and I looked up to see Sam grinding the head of the alien parasite into the wet floor until it was silent and moved no longer.

"No!" Ba'al called out and flashed his golden hand at Sam, flinging her across the room in the opposite direction. All at once, several things happened that I have only fuzzy memories of. Ba'al hauled me up out of the mess onto my knees, my back protesting from the glass still protruding from it and causing me to elicit a gasp.

"You will die for this, human!" He growled and raised his hand over my head. Energy spewed forth from the crystal in his palm. Immediately, pain assaulted my senses as the world exploded into a fiery ball of white hot light and indescribable torment. I was unable to resist crying out as every nerve ending from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet burned. I was certain that death was sure to follow soon. Helplessly lost in the pain, I was paralyzed and couldn't fight back. All I could do was pray for an end to come soon, whether that end be death or not.

The intensity of the beam increased and just as I was certain that I would not be able to take another second of the unending misery , it all came to a sudden and abrupt end.

I collapsed to the floor, crying out as I fell onto the glass in my back, driving it further into the muscle. Stunned, panting and bleeding I rolled to my side, grateful for the release from the beam, but still in a world of hurt. As my vision tried to clear, I could fuzzily make out a face by my side on the floor. To my surprise it was Ba'al, his eyes open, staring straight ahead into my own in shock until they glowed for the briefest of moments then closed, his body sagging.

It took a few seconds for me to comprehend what was happening as my head was still reeling from the pain the device caused and my back was screaming from the glass working its way further into my flesh. Ba'al had a long shard of glass buried deep into his neck, blood pooling around his head, his jugular sliced open. I could only surmise that his hand device could only protect him from energy weapons and not from the enraged and belligerent Air Force Colonel that knelt next to me breathing hard, his hand still gripping the broken piece of glass that remained in Ba'al's throat. O'Neill wore a deadly look of satisfaction at seeing our captor dead and it was frightening to behold.

"Colonel?" I asked, trying to hold back the waves of revulsion at seeing the violent end that had come to our captor. O'Neill still had that glassy, unfocused look of pure hate like he wanted to kill something else so I reached my hand out for his fingers still holding onto his makeshift shank and tried to help him pry them off.

"He's dead already......let go." I told him gently.

The touch seemed to do the trick and he snapped out of it, his gaze focusing again and landing on my own. He let the glass go slowly, his fingers bleeding from gripping the sharp edges so hard. An unspoken word of gratitude passed between us and for the first time I felt something other than contempt come from the hardened veteran towards me.

"You okay, Jackson?" He asked. I wasn't, but I was more worried that Sam may have been hurt when Ba'al tossed her across the room with his hand device.

"Fine....Help Sam." I told him. He got up and left me and I managed to sit up, albeit not without substantial effort. The glass in my back was still wedged in pretty good and I attempted to reach for it in order pull it out, but my shaky hands were too wet and I just couldn't get a grip on it well enough to dislodge it. I was going to need help to remove it. Looking to the other end of the room, I saw O'Neill help Sam up and was relieved to see her get up and make their way back over to me. Both apparently suffered a few bumps, bruises and cuts from their flights into the walls, but were otherwise unharmed.

Before they could make it all the way back to my position, the sound of boots running down the corridor echoed into the room. No doubt Ba'al's guards heard the commotion and were now on their way. O'Neill reached for the energy weapon and crouched beside the door, motioning for us to find a place to hide. Sam rushed over to me and we managed to find cover behind a desk.

Seconds later, O'Neill incapacitated the Jaffa with his weapon, catching them by surprise and taking them down before they could reach the room. He waved to us, indicating that we should follow him.

"C'mon, let's get out of here before more of them come!"

Sam got up and I tried to follow. Whether it was the effects of the device to my head or the glass in my back, I'm not sure, but as soon as I made it to my feet, a wave of nausea and dizziness took over and I nearly came to my knees. Sam grabbed my arm and before I could fall, concern marking her features.

"Daniel, you're bleeding!" She said, looking to my back.

"Just got a little glass in my back...I'll be okay...Let's just get out of here, we can get it out later." I suggested, not wanting to spend another moment in this place with Ba'al and that creature's bodies still lying on the floor.

"What's the hold up? Let's go!" O'Neill ordered.

Following the Colonel down the hallway, I wasn't sure where we were heading and I wasn't completely sure that he knew either, but as long as it got us out of this building then I didn't really care.

In one hallway we came across a couple of people, perhaps employees of Ba'al, but not the large Jaffa that had been dealing with us, but regular ordinary people. Who knew how many people Ba'al had working for him out here. O'Neill took them out with the stun gun and I had to balk at that.

"Did you have to shoot them? They couldn't have hurt us; they're unarmed!"

"Even unarmed people can raise alarms, Jackson. Besides it's not like I killed them. They'll just wake up in a little while with a headache."

I was too exhausted to argue any further as my head was still fuzzy and throbbing in pain, not to mention the pain in my back was making it hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The cold soaking I received from the fish tank did little to help matters either and I shivered uncontrollably like it was getting colder the longer we searched for an exit.

I was couldn't help dragging behind a bit of the other two as we continued winding our way through corridors and hallways. Sam noticed my fatigue and held back a bit waiting for me to catch up.

I was grateful for her her concern, finding it touching. I had to admit that I wasn't immune to the fact that a beautiful woman was paying any sort of attention to me and I was certain that under normal circumstances she wouldn't even notice me. Most women I had ever known went for the strong, jock types like Colonel O'Neill, not nerds like me. But Sam wasn't like any woman I had ever met before.

She touched my arm, her deep blue eyes looking into mine. It was only a look, but for a moment I felt a connection unlike any I had ever had with a woman before; it was indescribable. I could only hope that she felt it too. But, things like that don't happen to me I reminded myself.

"You sure you're okay, Daniel?"

"Um...sure...just need to take a break a sec." I panted, trying to flash her a quick smile of gratitude for her care before I gulped back another wave of queasiness and attempted to catch my breath. Funny how the only thing I was worried about at that particular moment wasn't the fact that we were trying to escape with our lives from the facility, but how I didn't want to hurl all over Sam's shoes. That definitely wasn't the way I wanted to make an impression with her.

"We'll never make it out of here if you two keep falling behind." O'Neill complained, doubling back to us.

I nodded. Despite the dizziness that threatened to take me over, I knew he was right; we needed to keep moving and I couldn't help but feel guilty that I was holding us back. I grit my teeth and set my jaw. I was not about to be the reason we got caught again. It was time for me to suck it up and drive on. I pushed on after that with renewed and determined vigor, ignoring the growing pain in my back and head, the stomach turning nausea and heaviness in my legs.

Finally we drew close to the end of one corridor that opened up into a large foyer. We flattened ourselves against one wall as O'Neill peeked around the corner. I could make out at least one human security guard. Who knew how many more of them there could be around there. At least this was the human variety of guard and not the huge alien brutes that had attended to us earlier, something for which I could be grateful for.

"Stop right there!" called out a voice and we all spun to face another security guard running towards us from the opposite end of the corridor. He was armed with a handgun and had it pointed in our direction as he ran. He stopped and fired two times, bullets ricocheting off the wall, causing us to all duck but as luck would have it, his aim was more than off. However, Colonel O'Neill's aim was dead on as he shot the man with the alien stun gun and he fell to the floor.

Sam ran around to the guard and took his weapon for her own use before rushing back to us. By this time, the other security guard had pulled an alarm and klaxons went off all across the facility, echoing off the walls with lights flashing. The Colonel wasted no time spinning on his heels and firing his weapon once again, taking out the other security guard that set off the call for help.

Dashing across the foyer, we ran to a set of steel double doors that had to be the exit, but found it to be locked tight. O'Neill pushed and banged against the door with his shoulder several times in frustration, but it wouldn't budge.

"Perhaps there's a mechanism to open the doors through the security system, Sir." Sam suggested as she ran to the security desk at the other side of the mostly featureless entryway. She went to the computer and went to work. I joined her by the console, but understood little of what she was doing. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as I looked up at a bank of monitors that I assumed were closed circuit feeds of the facility. Several screens caught my attention. There appeared to be several more guards running down corridors towards our location.

"Uh, Sam....we've got company coming." I informed her anxiously.

"I think I almost got it. I had to hack into the mainframe, but.....ah...there!" She exclaimed. "Try it now, Sir!" she called out to O'Neill waiting by the door. He pushed and the door opened to the outside.

"Good work, Carter." He flashed her quick smile, praising her quick and brilliant work.

"Thanks, Sir." She replied with a proud grin as we quickly made our way back to the Colonel and ran out into the night.

Once outside, O'Neill again took the lead and we followed him to the side of the building, taking cover against the wall. Our last obstacle before we were free of the complex remained the tall fence with concertina attached to the top that encircled the property. Even on a good day when I hadn't been forced to workout till exhaustion or landed on a giant glass fish tank or nearly had all of my brain cells fried by an insane alien, scaling the fence would have been very improbable, now it was downright impossible.

Now that we had come to a stop as O'Neill assessed the situation, I felt my knees give a little. I shivered again and I wanted nothing more than to just sink to the ground and rest until the unending headache and dizziness subsided, but the colonel had other ideas. As long as he didn't say we needed to climb the fence, I was okay with whatever plan he came up with.

"When I say go, we head for that guard shack." He ordered. Thank God he didn't mention any climbing, I thought.

He pointed across the open, unpaved gravel expanse of the complex to the small little shack situated next to the gate for the fence. Two armed guards stood outside the shack on alert. We'd be vulnerable out in the open like that, but it was dark enough that they might not see us until we were right upon them. We heard the distinct sound of voices yelling and closing in on our position. It was time to move again. I pushed myself reluctantly off the wall, praying that I would be physically able to make the sprint to the gate.

"Go!" The colonel urged us in an intense but quiet voice.

We took off. I surprised myself at being capable of a full run, maybe not a sprint like Sam and Colonel O'Neill, but I was able to catch up to them just as O'Neill shot the two guards and Sam ran into the shack, slamming the button to open the gate. The metal fence slid open to the side and we took off into the forest beyond the property, hearing the yells of more guards looking for us as we fled.

Running deeper into the woods with only the light of the moon to guide our way, I had no idea where we were running to. I only knew that I wouldn't be able to go on much longer.

After several minutes rushing through the dark forest, dodging tree and getting cut up by the underbrush, it seemed as though we had lost our pursuers for the time being. The Colonel and Sam slowed to a walk and I nearly fell over, my back finally giving out. If it hadn't been for Sam catching me, I would have fallen flat on my face. With gentle hands she lowered me to the forest floor.

I gasped trying to catch my breath as the world spun around. Putting my head in my hands, I fought off the urge to vomit and shook with the effort. It was then that I felt her cool hand lift the back of my shirt.

"This is a lot of blood, Daniel. This is more than a little piece of glass isn't it? Let me have a look." I wondered absently if I should be more concerned when she inhaled sharply with a hiss after raising my shirt above the glass buried in my back.

"Sir." she called out to the Colonel, who finally stopped and turned back to us, just now noticing that we had stopped. "We need to stop for a bit. Daniel's hurt bad."

Bad? How bad could it be? It was just a little piece of glass, right? Then again, given the way I was feeling, it couldn't be all that good.

"Hold, still, Daniel." Sam told me, gently putting a hand on my shoulder "I'm going to take this glass out, we don't want it going in any further and making things worse." I winced when I felt her take hold of the shard.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Just do it, Sam." I told her through gritted teeth, anticipating the pain it would no doubt cause.

"Okay, Breath in." I did as was told. "Now blow it out." As I expelled the air from my lungs she pulled mightily on the glass and pulled it out in one quick motion. I couldn't help but gasp as I felt it come free. Immediately, a warm stickiness slid down my already wet back; the nausea and lightheaded feeling I had been fighting for so long was winning the battle for my senses, but somehow I managed to stay upright a little longer

"Holy crap...." The Colonel started as he walked up to us. "That was in you the whole time?"

"What?" I asked, feeling woozy. Then I saw the piece of glass Sam held. It had to be at least three inches long. _Why does this crap always happen to me?_ I wondered as the world went upside down and everything went black.

To Be continued.........


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 8**

**_Sam_**

"Sir, I need something to stop this bleeding." I told the Colonel. He knelt next to me and Daniel, coming to one knee with a grunt. He stripped off his sweater, then pulled the t-shirt underneath off, handing it to me before slipping the sweater back on. I nodded in thanks.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to rip this t-shirt up."

"Go for it, Carter." I ripped the t-shirt into long strips, folding one strip up into a square pad of sorts. He helped me roll Daniel to his side and I grabbed the folded strip of t-shirt, pressing it into the wound on Daniel's back. He stirred and groaned a little, mumbling something in a language I'd never heard before as I applied pressure to it.

"You with us, Buddy?" O'Neill asked the awaking archaeologist.

"Buddy?" Daniel's confused voice weakly asked. "m'I dying?must be if you called me that."

"No, Daniel. You just passed out. You're going to be okay." I assured him with a pat to his shoulder. He tried to sit up to get a look at what I was doing to his back, but I pushed him back down. "Just lie still." I told him

"'Kay...." He mumbled.

"How bad is it?" O'Neill asked me quietly.

"It's not too wide, but it's deep. I don't think it hit anything vital or any arteries but with a puncture wound like this and out here in the open, infection might become a problem if we don't get him to a hospital soon."

"Right, hold on while I call in the choppers." O'Neill replied with sarcasm.

"Shouldn't we keep going?" Daniel muttered tiredly from his side. "Ba'al's guys are mostly likely waking up by now and pretty pissed off that you killed their boss."

"You need to stay put until the bleeding stops." I said, looking to the Colonel. I could see that he knew that Daniel wasn't going to be able to go very far, at least not until he had a chance to recover a bit. Even then, there was the question of what we were to do for food, water, shelter and how we were going to get in touch with the Air Force.

"I remember a road not that far from here..." Daniel began.

"Na-uh." O'Neill squelched that idea. "We need to steer clear of the road for now, Jackson. That's going to be the first place they'd start looking for us. Our best bet is to keep going through the forest until we're well away from here, then we can look for the nearest town and contact the Air Force"

"Maybe, sir. But we're lost out here. None of us know the area and we could be wandering around aimlessly for God knows how long." I added "Perhaps we should stick near to the road, at least we know it must lead to some sort of...." The Colonel shook his head adamantly before I could finish. Then he sighed in frustration.

"We're not. I repeat, not going near that road. We'll take our chances out here. Now, this isn't my first time being lost in the woods. So, tell you what, I'm going to go do some recon- see what's around here, maybe I can find us some place to hide-out for tonight and in the morning we'll head out. You two take some cover and stay out of sight." He turned to address me.

"You still have that weapon you took from the guard, Captain?" I nodded.

"Good- I'll be back." With that, the Colonel was up and running off, leaving me with the injured archaeologist.

"I'm holding you two back." Daniel began sullenly. "You should just go with him. I'll be fine here." I could tell that he was tired and grumpy from the pain and soreness he was no doubt in so I ignored his suggestion.

"That's not how it works, Daniel." I replied.

"No? How does this work? My first time being chased through the wilderness." He joked mildly.

"Well, if it's any consolation, it's my first time too. But, I'm not willing to leave you behind. So end of discussion."

"Are you always this stubborn?" he asked

"Yep, Are you?"

"Pretty much." I had to chuckle a little at that and I heard him snicker as well. I checked the make-shift bandage against Daniel's back and was pleased to see that it had finally stopped bleeding. I pressed a new piece of folded fabric against his wound and wrapped a long piece of tee-shirt around his waist to hold it in place so we could move to better cover.

"There's a bunch of fallen trees and what looks like a ditch over there." I pointed. "We should move there, we'll be less visible."

"'Kay." He agreed and sat up with a groan, swaying a bit as he got up.

"Whoa. Take your time." I told him, helping him slowly to his feet. When it seemed like he had a good handle on his balance I lead him over to the ditch. We settled in, both of us leaning and sitting up against one of the large fallen trees side by side, well hidden from view.

"How's your back?" I asked him.

"Been better, but it's okay. Only hurts a little." I could tell by the strain in his voice that he was feeling more pain and fatigue than he let on, but wasn't willing to admit it. It was silent between for several minutes and since it was so dark and I couldn't see him very well, I figured he must have fallen asleep until he spoke up, shattering the quiet.

"So....I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out here. You must have some sort of medical training too?" He asked

"Sort of. I've taken a few combat lifesaver courses. Never thought I would actually get to use any of that training though." I replied.

"Well, I for one am glad you did." He was quiet again for a few moments until he spoke up again.

"Well, since we're both just sitting here with little else to do besides hide from homicidal aliens, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself.... "

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like, are you married?"

"No, not married. I was engaged recently, but I called it off."

"I'm sorry." I felt his hand on my shoulder and turned to look into his kind eyes. I gave him a small smile.

"Don't be. I'm only sorry that I didn't figure out that he was a jerk sooner. What about you? You married?"

"No, I haven't met anyone that was that desperate yet." He said despondently.

"Desperate? Why would you say that?"

"Let's just say that I haven't always been the best boyfriend, just ask my ex-girlfriend Sarah. I guess I have a tendency to get caught up in my work."

"My ex-fiancée used to complain that I was like that too. He just didn't get it that what I was doing was important to me." I agreed with him. Perhaps I had found a new kindred spirit in Dr. Jackson.

"Guess we're pretty alike in that respect." He chuckled a little. That's when I heard a noise from the darkness of the forest and I raised a finger to my lips.

"Shhhh-you hear that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure." He replied looking around. Both of us were quiet as we listen to the sounds of the surrounding woods. I heard it again; the unmistakable sound of feet crunching leaves underfoot as they walked. My heart beat increased and I reached for the handgun I took from the guard at Ba'al's facility and undid the safety, scanning the trees for signs of movement.

From out of the blackness came two figures; two of Ba'al's Jaffa about twenty feet away. I could sense Daniel tense up beside me and I motioned for him to get to the ground. I slid to my stomach, taking a prone position behind the log in front of us. Daniel came up to my side, his breathing picking up pace as well as he grunted a bit from the pain the shift in position must have caused him.

They must have been tracking us and were following our tracks right to our position. I took aim at our pursuers and held my breath as they came closer.

**_Catherine_**

"Morning, Catherine, You wanted to see me?" Gary entered the conference and stood beside the table. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, next to me General West sat up a little straighter and narrowed his eyes at Dr. Meyers.

"Have a seat Dr. Meyers. We have some things we need to discuss." The General addressed him abruptly.

Gary sat across from me, looking from me to General West and back to me again, a visible fine line of sweat immediately forming on his brow. My mind was a mix of emotions as I looked at Gary. For nearly two years, he had been one of the lead civilian scientists on our project and one of my closest colleagues, but now I wasn't sure what to make of him.

After talking to him the other night in the lab, I decided to do a little more digging into Gary's past before calling the General in. It actually didn't take long for me to find that something was amiss.

As a civilian with top secret clearance, Gary had a thorough background check when he was first employed by the government, but his last update had been nearly a year ago and since then, he had gone through a rough divorce. It turned out from his bank records that his entire savings had been wiped out. Turned out that his ex-wife, Veronica, had racked up quite a gambling debt. Then suddenly, just a few weeks ago, Gary's account had been replenished by a substantial amount. I hated to think that he may have betrayed us all for money and I wanted to hear the whole story from him.

"Gary, " I began. "Some of your financial issues have come to light recently and I need to ask you a few questions."

Gary closed his eyes. I could see the resignation written all over his face and I knew right away that he knew he had been caught. My heart dropped.

"Catherine....Please I want to explain everything....I wanted to tell you sooner...."

"Dr. Meyers." General West jumped into the conversation, taking on an adversarial role. "What did you need to say? You were over twenty thousand dollars in debt, then suddenly all of your debts were cleared and another fifty thousand was deposited just a few weeks ago. How did that come about? Who paid you off ?" West's face was glowing a bright red in anger towards the now profusely sweating scientist.

"Please....please...let me explain..." Gary was nearly in tears and I laid a hand over General West's arm to calm him.

"Gary, this is very, very serious....Just tell us what happened."

He licked his lips nervously as fresh tears formed in his eyes. I could see the battle being waged with in him as he began to finally relate his story to us.

"It was never supposed to end up like this.....Veronica was in such trouble....she was gambling non-stop and before we knew it, we were in debt so far.....I didn't think we would ever get out. I asked for a divorce, but I still owed all of this money. Then one day this man shows up at my door...I don't know how he knew me or how he knew I was working for the Air Force, but he knew things. He knew about Veronica and he told me that he would take care of my debt and add another fifty thousand to that if I only did one thing for him."

"What was that, Dr. Meyers?" General West asked.

"All I had to do was let him know when Dr. Jackson was hired and where Catherine was to meet him. That's all...I swear. I had no idea that he may have had plans to kidnap him or Sam too. I never would have agreed if I knew that! This is all my fault." He began to sob "I'm so sorry."

"I am too, Gary. You should have come to me. I could have helped."

"I just couldn't, Catherine. I was so ashamed..."

I shook my head in dismay.

"I am too Gary. I am too."

To Be Continued......


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 9**

**_Jack_**

I hadn't gotten very far from Jackson and Carter as the going was terribly dark when I stopped dead in my tracks, hearing the unmistakable sounds of leaves being crunched under foot. Immediately taking cover behind a tree, my senses were on full alert as I scanned the area. It was dark as sludge out, but I could just make out the two enormous forms of Ba'al's Jaffa henchmen not 200 yards from my position. I wondered how they could have found our trail so fast, but then again, if these were supposed to be the bodyguards to a God then you would think that they might have some mad tracking skills.

I crouched down low and strained my vision to determine which way they were heading and groaned a little on the inside as I realized they were heading towards the last position that Daniel and Captain Carter had been in. In each of the Jaffa's hands was a long staff, a weapon of sorts I supposed. I could only hope that the other two had found themselves some better concealment and that gun the captain had taken had enough ammunition to take on the approaching brutes.

Following as discreetly and quietly as I could, my heart pounded wildly as we traveled through the wilderness. The Jaffa were quiet as they followed the subtle markers of our flight through the forest from Ba'al's compound. I hadn't realized how much I truly missed my black ops days, tracking the enemy or even in some cases being chased by the enemy. It was an adrenaline rush that couldn't be duplicated in any other line of work and truth be told, I hadn't felt so alive as I did at that moment, at least not since Charlie died.

Several times as I encroached on the pair, they stopped and looked around as if they heard something. Each time I took refuge behind a tree and held my breath until they turned their attention back to the task at hand. We were only a couple hundred meters from the last place I saw my two fellow prisoners and I knew I would have to take action soon.

They entered the clearing where Daniel and Carter had been before I left. I knew the sound of the stun-gun thingy would draw attention to myself and hopefully would distract the Jaffa from finding the others and give them a chance to get away.

Taking a deep breath, I charged the weapon and aimed.

_**Daniel**_

Sam leaned forward and targeted the two Jaffa that stood not 20 feet away from us now as they approached ever closer. Her finger hovered over the trigger, but before she could fire, chaos ensued.

I heard the now familiar whine of one of the alien stun weapons being activated. That's when the two guards spun on their heels at the sound and raised the long staffs they carried in their hands. An arc of energy sprang forth from the woods, but the two Jaffa dove out of the way and took refuge behind trees, managing to avoid being hit.

Sam used the distraction to get a round off, hitting the Jaffa closest to us in the shoulder. As he fell to the ground, she fired again at the other guard, but he rolled to the forest floor and narrowly avoided the bullet. The two Jaffa's attention was now split between ourselves and the unseen assailant in the forest. As if using some form of telepathy the two Large men merely gave each other a look and one spun in our direction, hefting the long staff he carried while the other aimed for the darkness of the forest.

A bolt of energy shot forth from the long weapon the Jaffa were using against us and exploded just above our heads, setting fire to the fallen tree behind us. My heart felt as though it was trying to escape the confines of my chest and and all I wanted to do was run, but to leave the relative safety of our little bit of protection the fallen logs provided us would be suicide. So instead I ignored my panic and the pain in my back and crouched down to my stomach further while Sam fired again.

Ahead of us, the injured Jaffa continued to fight from the ground and fired his weapon, sending out a devastating ball of fire into the woods. I felt my anxiety levels rise when I heard a shout of pain emanate from the forest.

If Sam had been fazed at all by what was going on, she didn't show it. She aimed again and shot off another round, hitting the Jaffa that had fired at us right between the eyes. He fell backwards and landed with a loud thud, instantly dead. Without missing a beat, she turned her attention immediately to the already injured Jaffa and squeezed the trigger once more, but gun refused to fire. She was out of ammo.

"Shit." I heard her exclaim under her breath as she threw the gun to the side in frustration. The alien guard hauled himself from the ground and grinned wickedly as he walked calmly to our position, pointing his weapon towards our makeshift hideout.

"Come out Tau'ri dogs and fight me face to face! Meet your death with some dignity." He shouted

Sam looked at me and for a moment and something flickered across her eyes, was this the same look I was giving her? Was this the look that you give to others when you know you're going to die? But there was something else that her eyes held: it was determination. She wasn't giving up yet and for a moment I truly felt that she would actually get up and fight this man if she had to. I put my hand on her shoulder to restrain her as she tried to get up, but there was no holding her back, so I did the only thing I could think of, and that was get up with her.

Just as she began to rise and I slowly got to my knees, exposing our position, the Jaffa's grin grew wider and his aim more purposeful.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you!" He growled, priming his weapon.

His hand moved to fire the weapon and finish us off, but before it could discharge, he was enveloped in energy and sank to his knees, falling to his face.

To our surprise, Colonel O'Neill stood behind him with the stun gun in his shaking hand. He gave a frightening growl with an equally fearsome visage, firing again and again at the prone figure on the ground. To my amazement, the body glowed bright with energy as bright tendrils wrapped around the Jaffa and before our very eyes, his body disappeared as though his very molecules had been torn apart. Our previous assumptions that the stun-gun was merely a non-lethal weapon, now squashed.

"Holy crap!" Sam muttered in shock.

O'Neill shook with the effort it took to stand, then fell to his knees. Sam ran to the Colonel and helped him to lay back on the ground. Forgetting how much it hurt to move so quickly with my injured back, I ran to O'Neill's side as well. His shoulder and chest were charred and bleeding; he must have been hit by the weapon the Jaffa carried. It was an ugly sight and the smell of his burnt flesh stung my nostrils, bringing on a wave of repulsion and nausea. The colonel's eyes bored into mine as I came to my knees beside him. Sam took his hand to offer some kind of comfort, but it was clear that there wasn't much she could do for him otherwise. He was dying.

He looked me directly in the eyes and began to mouth something I couldn't hear. I leaned in closer so I could hear him better, his words merely a whisper on his lips. With his last bit of remaining strength, he raised the hand Sam wasn't holding and grabbed onto my shirt collar.

"Tell....S..Sara....P...please..." He closed his eyes to the pain before opening them again, imploring me to help him.

"Whatever you want, Colonel." I told the dying man sincerely.

"Tell her....I ..love her.... and..s..sorry..." His choked out. Staring up into the canopy of trees overhead, his eyes took on a glassy look and his hand loosened its grip on my shirt, falling to the ground limply.

"I promise." I assured him and he nodded weakly.

He took in one last shuddering breath and sighed.

"Charlie." He whispered, body sagging and eyes fixed on the stars above.

Sam sighed heavily and put the colonel's hand back across his chest. He was gone She was near tears as she put her hand over his eyes and closed them for him. I realized then that I was shaking like a leaf, the Colonel had sacrificed his life for us. He was a far better man than I had given him credit for and now that he was gone, I wished that I had gotten to know him better.

"Thank-you, Colonel." She spoke softly then looked across to me with a stricken face. In the distance, I could just make out the sounds of voices shouting. The men from the compound must have been alerted to the sounds of the weapons fire and were hot on our trail again. Would there be no end to their pursuit of us?

"What do we do now?" I asked her. She grabbed the stun weapon that lay next to the Colonel then rose up swiftly, reaching for the long, energy weapon that fell next to the dead Jaffa and scooped it up. Walking back to where I knelt next to the Colonel, she helped me to my feet and looked me straight in the eye with fire and determination, burning deep in those blue depths.

"We get out of here and we live to make it back to the Air Force." She started fiercely. "Then we come back here and destroy Ba'al's compound for good. The colonel will not have died in vain- I'll make sure of that."

She strode off into the woods as the sounds of our pursuers drew closer. I took a deep breath and allowed my gaze to linger on O'Neill's body one last time. Though I could feel that the wound in my back had re-opened, I prayed it wouldn't slow us down as I took off after Sam. We had to live and I had a promise to keep.

To Be Continued.......


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 10**

**_Catherine_**

"Catherine."

General West greeted me with a nod as he stepped out of the interrogation room and advanced towards me with grim features.

"How did it go, General?" I asked of the intense questioning session he had been conducting with Dr. Meyers for the past few hours.

"He doesn't know much. It's pretty obvious that whoever was using Dr. Meyers to get on the inside, didn't let him in on who they were."

"What's going to happen to Gary?"

"I can't say, but he's a traitor, Catherine. He sold out you, me, the Air Force and our missing people for money. If it were up to me, Treason would still be punishable by hanging."

"General...."

"Catherine...." He sighed. "You should know that Colonel O'Neill is a personal friend of mine. I was in command of his black ops team for years and I owe him my life to him on several occasions and it just makes me sick that someone like Dr. Meyers could betray his country and true heroes such as Colonel O'Neill just because he was hard up for cash and I'm determined to find out who's responsible for all of this."

"Any idea who it could be?" I asked.

"I wish I could speculate. Could be just about anyone. Chinese, Russians, North Koreans, hell even the Canadians for all we know. But whoever it is, they have deep pockets and vast resources at their disposal, that much is certain. But they won't be able to cover all of their tracks. As it is, I have an officer coming in that's most skillful in getting to the bottom of things like this."

"Who would that be, General?" I had to know.

"An old acquaintance from my black ops days; Colonel Harry Maybourne."

**_Sam_**

As the first hint of sunrise began to cast its glow along the eastern most edges of the horizon, I steered us northward and prayed we would come across some kind of civilization soon. I was determined to get us both to a safe point, but I had been so focused on that goal that I failed to realize how difficult it was for Daniel to maintain our speed and eventually we had to slow it down.

I hadn't heard any noises from behind us in quite some time, so I believed or at least hoped that we had finally lost our pursuers.

Eventually I had to bring us to a stop when Daniel was using tree after tree for support. Sweaty and panting heavily, I immediately felt guilty for pushing such a hard pace. I was so distracted by Colonel O'Neill's death that I lost sight of the fact that Daniel was still injured and now appeared to be running on the last reserves of his energy.

I fell back to him as he leaned against the trunk of a large tree, trying to catch his breath.

"You okay, Daniel?" I asked.

"Been...better." He replied between breaths. "I'll live."

"Let's find a spot to rest." He only nodded in agreement, pushing off from the tree. I noticed the blood that smeared on the bark of the tree as he moved away.

"You're bleeding again." I pointed out. He just nodded.

"I didn't want to stop. It's not as bad as it looks." He tried to downplay it, but I could tell it was bothering him and his pale features and clammy looking skin told a different story.

"Let me take a look?" I asked.

"Fine." He sighed and I came up behind him, lifting his shirt to get another look. The wound oozed a little, but thankfully wasn't bleeding very badly. However, the red swelling around it concerned me and the feel of the hot skin surrounding it had me worried that infection was beginning to set in.

I adjusted the makeshift t-shirt bandage again and lowered his shirt, giving him an apologetic pat on the shoulder, helping him to sit on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I was so focused on getting us out of here that I pushed you too hard."

"No, . Don't apologize. We got this far, thanks to you.... and Colonel O'Neill."

At the mention of the Colonel's name I grew a little solemn. I vowed his sacrifice would not be in vain, but with Daniel barely able to stand upright any further and myself, exhausted from trying to flee our pursuers all night long, the chances of our making it back to the relative safety of the nearest town and contacting the Air Force seemed unlikely. We were lost and I was no closer to getting us found than we had been hours earlier.

"We need to find some water soon." Daniel pointed out, shaking me out of my despondency. We had fled the compound without any water and had yet to encounter any kind of water source since then. I myself was parched and I could only imagine how Daniel was feeling given the exhaustion written across his sweaty features. I sat next to him as he took off his glasses and wiped the dirt that smudged the surface of them. Then he lay his head back against the tree trunk, turning glassy, blue eyes my way.

"I know." I agreed sympathetically. "There's got to be a stream, a pond, something around here where we can get some fresh water. But you need to rest first." Daniel's eyes closed wearily, and he nodded, already beginning to drift off.

I too could feel pull of sleep as I sat there next to him, his body radiating heat next to mine, shoulder to shoulder, feeling a comfortableness that I hadn't felt in days. Perhaps it was just the sudden cessation of action that saw all the adrenaline that had sustained me the last couple days drain away and lead to my eyes involuntarily closing from time to time. I tried to uphold my watch over my injured companion, but as much as I tried to fight it, sleep overcame me and against my own volition, I found my head drifting over to Daniel's shoulder.

"Hmph" He chuckled tiredly with his eyes closed and I snapped back up, embarrassed that I had allowed myself to become so vulnerable.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." I stumbled over an apology to Daniel for invading his personal space.

"Oh, no need to be sorry. I was just thinking that it had been an awfully long time since a beautiful woman had laid her head on my shoulder." He opened his eyes and sent his gaze my way, making contact with my own. "Come to think of it...This may be the first time." He smiled weakly, his handsome features and sincerity was touching.

"Seriously?" I asked

"My last girlfriend.....actually, my only girlfriend come to think of it....wasn't much of a cuddler." He sighed. "It's kinda nice actually. You can lay your head on my shoulder all you want."

"Well, if you insist." I lay my head back on him with a little laugh and I could just make out contented smile on his face as he closed his eyes again. I hadn't met very many men outside of the military and even fewer than that who would admit to enjoying a good cuddle, so it was a welcome treat. It was also surreal at the same time. Here was a man I only knew for a couple of days, yet I felt comfortable enough with him to share such an intimate act. It wasn't as if I was ready to kiss him or anything such as that but it was as if we had been friends for years already. I chalked it up to the fact that we had just shared an intense ordeal, but it was at that moment that I realized I had a new friend for life.

In moments he was fast asleep. I was so tired and exhausted that I knew I would need rest as well if we were to continue on at all again, so I allowed myself to drift loff ightly as well, but keeping an ear out for any sounds out in the forest. I vowed that after I had a little nap, I would find us some water then we could continue on again.

Perhaps I slept deeper and longer than I had meant to.

I woke up next to a flinch and gasp from Daniel. My eyes flung open, my head coming up sharply from his shoulder in surprise as the double barrel of a shotgun was aimed right between his eyes.

"Who the hell are you two?" A rough voice asked. "And what are you doing on my property?"

**_Jack_**

Funny. I remembered dying. Every excruciating last second of it. The smell of my own charred flesh, the looks of resignation from Jackson and Captain Carter as they knew there was nothing they could do for me. Then finally, the enclosing darkness and nothingness.

I knew I was dead.

And yet, here I was waking up.

I gasped for breath as I realized I was enclosed in a very tight and dark space. Oh God! I thought. I'm in a coffin. Not a very comfortable one, but a coffin none the less.

Now, I'm not one usually prone to panic, but the thought of being buried alive was not a pleasant one. I banged my fist against the top of my very small prison and yelled out, hoping someone would hear me.

That's when a blinding white light filled the space and the lid above me broke in two halves, sliding apart and opening up to the world outside. Anxious to be out, I sat bolt upright, taking in my surroundings as I still sat within the the box.

I was alone in a dimly lit room and after the brightness of the box, it was hard to make out much of anything in the room. I looked over my body to where I had been hit by the energy weapon. My clothes were still shredded, charred and bloody, but my skin was completely healed and smooth. In fact, this same shoulder had been injured years ago during Desert Storm and had always been stiff and sore since then, but now it moved freely and easily without pain.

"What the Hell...?" I asked of the empty room, or at least what I thought at the time was an empty room.

"Oh this isn't hell, Colonel O'Neill." A figured spoke as it rose from a seat in a dark corner and came into the light an evil smile spreading across his features. "At least not yet."

"Ba'al?" I asked incredulously, my voice dripping with bitterness. "I killed you."

"And my Jaffa killed you, yet here we are." He laughed.

"How?"

"The sarcophagus you are sitting in is more than just a pretty little artifact, Colonel. It is a sophisticated healing device that can even bring human bodies back to life if they are placed inside soon enough after death. Thankfully, my Jaffa were able to place me inside in time after you so rudely killed me before."

"Why did you revive me?" I had to ask.

"Because, believe it or not, Colonel. As much as I would love to see you dead, I need you."

TBC....


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 11**

**_Daniel_**

"I asked you a question. What are you doing on my property?"

I raised my hands to the middle-aged woman with wild, untamed dark curls holding a shotgun to my forehead, her eyes intensely studying me and Sam as we sat on the ground.

"Uh....Um...Sorry. We didn't know this was your property." I began, praying it would appease her anger.

"Well, now you do. So you better get lost." She responded testily, gesturing with her gun towards the woods.

"Wait, please." I appealed to her. "My name is Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Captain Samantha Carter." I pointed to Sam. "We need help. We didn't know we were trespassing, honestly. We were kidnapped and we escaped from this compound not that far from here and we ran all night and...and uh, uh. " My head was feeling too foggy for me to think straight and I knew I was babbling. By the look she was giving me, she had to think I was some kind of lunatic.

"Kidnapped, eh? That's a new one."

"Please, you got to believe us. Daniel here is hurt. We need to get him to a hospital and I am an officer in the Air Force and need to get in contact with my superiors ASAP, it's a matter of national security." Sam tried to convince her.

"You're hurt?" The woman asked, looking me over. Truth was, even after resting, I still felt like crap. My head and back was just as sore as ever except now, I was feeling chills and an achy fever on top of that. If I looked half as bad as I felt, then it wouldn't take much for the woman to see that Sam was telling the truth.

"Please." Sam pleaded.

The woman's features softened ever so slightly, but she kept her weapon trained on me and Sam.

"Alright. I'll take you to my cabin, but try any thing funny and you'll be eating lead, got it?"

Sam and I nodded and the woman waved her gun at us in a gesture to stand. Sam came up quickly, but I found myself having difficulty trying to stand and as I did the world tilted a bit. I shook off the dizziness, but felt Sam wordlessly slip an arm around my waist to provide me with some stability. I gave her a grateful grin as the woman pointed towards the woods.

"My place is about a half-mile that way." She took off and lead the way while Sam and I continued on behind her at a slower pace. Each step was a painful reminder of how much abuse my body had been through the last couple of days. I really wasn't used to this type of physical exersion. My idea of exercise before all of this had been to take the stairs leading up to my apartment on the fourth floor instead of the elevator. Sure, I've been on a few digs before in the desert that had been physically demanding, but in the last couple of years those had been few and far between. Most of the time I would spend hours confined to a desk only getting up every once in a while to get coffee or to stretch out the kinks from being hunched over a book or artifact that needed study. Certainly nothing compared to this.

Thankfully, the woman had been right and it had only been about a fifteen minute walk to her little 'cabin' as she called it. 'Shack' may have been a better term for her place, but it was shelter and if she had water, I would consider it akin to a palace. Even then, I was exhausted and sweaty by the time we got there.

Without a word, the woman walked up the steps to the door and held it open for us as we caught up to her. Sam once again helped me to climb the three steps that lead up to the door and we entered the cabin.

"You can put him on the bed." The woman suggested curtly to Sam, who walked with me over to the only bed in the one-room hovel. It may have not been the Ritz-Carlton, or even a Motel-Six, but that simple feather mattress was the best thing I had laid on in days. I turned to my uninjured side and was surprised when I felt a cold hand land on my forehead.

"He's got a fever." The woman pointed out to Sam matter-of-factly. "How long ago was he injured?"

"Hard to say, maybe 10-13 hours ago?" Sam replied.

The woman came to my side and lifted my shirt, pulling off the t-shirt that had served as a bandage.

"Ah!" I hissed as she poked and prodded at the wound. "Is it really necessary to poke it?" I asked.

"Do you want my help or not?" The woman came back.

"Sorry." I apologized

"The wound is infected." She continued "How did you do this?"

"He landed on some glass. It went in rather deep." Sam informed her for me.

"I'll say. There's a good chance you might still have some embedded in there, but what you need are antibiotics and a doctor, none of which I have around here."

"Do you have a phone nearby?" Sam asked "If I could just get a hold of...."

"Does it look like I have a phone? I haven't needed one in years."

"What about the nearest town?" I asked "How far is it from here?"

"The nearest town is a day's hike east of here. I usually go into town once a month for supplies, but I don't have a vehicle, we'd have to hoof it and I don't think that's such a good idea in your current state. Now, I have a radio around here somewhere, but it hasn't worked in years..."

"Perhaps I could take a look at it. I'm pretty good with electronics." Sam suggested.

"Knock yourself out. I think it's in that closet behind you."

Sam turned and went to the closet, beginning her search for the radio. The woman turned back to me and I tried to give her a thankful smile.

"Thanks for helping us. What is your name?" I asked wanting to get on the woman's good side.

"Marlene." She introduced herself. "I apologize if I've been a little short with you. I don't get a whole lot of visitors out here and when I do it's usually teenagers, getting lost while trying to find a place to drink and screw. But you two are certainly...different."

"Thanks, Marlene...I think." That finally seemed to do the trick and Marlene cracked a half-smile, brightening her otherwise dour features. She grabbed a first aid kit and took out a roll of gauze and some tape then went to her kitchen and wet a washcloth with some alcohol. Coming back, she sat opposite me on the bed and cleaned the wound with the wet cloth. I bit down on my tongue as the liquid burned into the open wound.

"So, you're some kind of Doctor?" She asked as she worked. "Obviously, it's not a medical one." She groused as she finished then pressed the gauze into my back and taped it up.

"Yeah, not so much." I agreed. "I'm an archaeologist. You seem to know something about medicine though, are you a nurse?" I asked.

"No." Marlene answered. "I've been a veterinary assistant for many years and I saw all kinds of injuries to animals and humans aren't all that different to treat than them." She sighed sadly before going on. "When my husband got sick I used to be his nurse of sorts... until he died."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I consoled her. " So, that's why you're out here by yourself?...." I could feel Marlene stiffen and I felt as though I should kick myself for asking such a personal question too soon. "Sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious."

"It's okay. Ya see, my husband and I moved put here 'bout twenty years ago. He was a researcher and I was his assistant."

"What were you researching?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"The black bear population in the area. We were following one particular family for several generations."

"Bears? There are bears out here?" I asked, once again grateful for the shelter.

"Of course." She smiled "But they'll usually leave you alone if you leave them alone. Unless you stumble into a mother's den. Then you you can kiss your ass good-bye."

"Right......so..you said your husband was sick?"

"Yeah, he died about three years ago from colon cancer." She replied with a distant look in her eyes. "Died right there on that bed you're laying on. Didn't want to be hooked up to machines and pumped full of medicine in the end-This was his favorite place on earth and after he passed, I vowed to continue his research and I have no intention on ever leaving."

"Leave? Why, did someone try to get you leave?"

"A few months ago, I got a visit from a man that wanted to buy my property; All 50 acres of it, but I wasn't about to sell. A few days later, the property next to mine was purchased from 'Old Jim'- he was this old hermit that never left the forest and his family owned at least 150 acres out here for generations. I never believed he would ever sell his land, but it turned out he had died in his sleep and just a few days later the land was bought up. Not long after that, is when that compound went up"

"How long has it been there?"

"Not that long, really. Just a couple of months. I'm not sure what goes on there... In fact, I wasn't all that surprised when you two said you escaped from that compound. I've had my suspicions about that place for a long time and I figured it was some kind of cult."

I nodded and shivered from an oncoming chill. As if sensing my discomfort, Marlene got up and joined Sam at the closet, pulling down a large afghan then draping it over my body.

"Thanks." I told her and she nodded. That's when Sam's voice cut across the room.

"I found the radio. It's a little beat up, but I think I can fix it." She said confidently as she she turned it over in her hands, then sighed resignedly when the bottom fell out to the floor and a mess of wires sprung from the opening."But, it might take me some time." She groused.

Marlene got up from my side and turned to Sam, pulling her to the corner. Even though I knew she was trying to keep her voice low in order to keep me from overhearing their conversation, I could still hear every word she spoke.

"You might want to hurry it up. Your friend's infection is pretty bad. If he doesn't get help soon, he could become septic and after that..."

Sam nodded, understanding.

I understood as well, but I was too tired to be as worried as I probably should have been and was asleep soon after that.

**_Jack_**

"You need me?" I asked Ba'al in disbelief, crossing my arms across my chest. "As if I would ever help you with anything."

"Yes, Colonel. I need your help." He replied. "Obviously not for your intellectual prowess, but for something far more basic."

"Such as..?"

"Your genes."

"My genes?"

"Yes. I was going to explain this to you earlier before you and your friends decided to break out and foil at least half of my plans."

"Sorry to be such a pain in the ass." I stated, not sorry at all. "What's so special about my genes anyway?"

"In order to fully explain this to you, I'm going to need you to come out of that sarcophagus and follow me. I have something very interesting to show you that you may find....important."

I eyed Ba'al suspiciously.

"Come, Colonel." He spoke venemously. "Remember, I still hold all of the cards here. You and your friends may have killed two of my Jaffa, but I still have one left and he's more than capable of beheading you with his bare hands and that is a death that not even the sarcophagus can bring you back from, so I suggest you come with me now."

As if to make his point clear, his last remaining Jaffa entered the room looking none too pleased about the fate that had befallen his two fellow goons.

Without much of a choice in the matter, I climbed out of the coffin-like doohicky and followed Ba'al out of the room with the big guy taking up the rear to ensure I wouldn't try to run for it. We made our way through several corridors and came to a lab labeled 'Advanced Genetics' above the door. Ba'al walked in and several scientists looked up from their desks and microscopes.

"Please leave everyone, I require some privacy." The scientists merely nodded and filed out of the lab, leaving me with Ba'al and his giant Jaffa

"My employees are not privy to the full extent of my enterprises here. Most of them are only here because they believe that they are working on the cutting edge of genetic research. I have given them access to my knowledge in genetic manipulation that I acquired from the Asgard." Ba'al explained.

"Asgard?" I asked already confused enough as it was.

"Yes, another race of beings you have yet to meet and I intend for you to never do so. But that is beside the point. From the Asgard I learned much about genetics and I am a result of such knowledge since I am myself a clone of the original Ba'al."

"Yeah, I got that already." I pointed out and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"You should also know that there is another race of beings that once occupied Earth many millenia before either humans developed here. They were known as the 'Ancients'."

"'Ancients'? Now there's a clever name."

"Yes, Colonel. How very witty of you to notice." He sighed with a roll of his eyes, but continued on. "These Ancients possessed technology far greater than anything you or I or any Goa'uld can even imagine."

"Yep, sounds like I know what you want to do tonight, Brain: try to take over the world."

Ba'al was unimpressed by my cartoon allusion and continued his explanation with an irritated sigh.

"On this planet, there is a weapon left by the Ancients of such power and magnitude that the one that controls it could very well rule not only _this_ world, but the entire galaxy."

"Of course, I should have known, the world is never enough, is it?. So, let me guess...You want this weapon?"

"Indeed, Colonel. There's just one problem. The technology that was left behind by the Ancients can only be used by the Ancients or those that possess their highly evolved genes. My scientists have worked tirelessly to find a way to manipulate the human genome in a way that mimics this gene, even with Asgard techniques and knowledge, human technology at this point in time is too severely limited to be completely successful. So, I am forced to seek out those few people on Earth that possess in their DNA this Ancient gene and you Colonel are one of those lucky few." Ba'al grinned at me smugly.

"Wish I'd had this kind of luck with the lottery instead." I complained sarcastically, but Ba'al was not amused. "Ya know there's not a snowball's chance in hell that I'm going to help you get a hold of this weapon."

"I knew you would never agree to help me, Colonel. That's why I took measures to ensure your cooperation."

"What kind of measures?"

"Follow me." Ba'al motioned with his hand and began walking across the lab, coming to a set of double doors which he pushed against and strolled through. I followed reluctantly, prodded along by the Jaffa behind me. He stopped once he reached a plain and windowless, steel door.

"Before I show you what I have behind this door, O'Neill. I want you to understand with crystal clarity that I have the power over life and death here and that which I have given, I can so easily take away."

"Just show me already, will ya?" I asked, growing annoyed with his superior attitude. I couldn't wait to kill him again.

Ba'al entered a code into the lock on the door and he opened it beckoning me to enter the room with him. I stepped inside and stopped cold in my tracks, the blood draining from my face in shock at the sight. I felt dizzy immediately and my heart began to pound.

The room was decorated in bright colors and along the walls, drawings of constellations and of a family with three people holding hands were hung up at various angles. In one corner was a bed and in the other was a desk and at this desk a young boy sat, coloring a picture. Tears sprang to my eyes involuntarily. I wanted to run across the room, but I was paralyzed by fear.

Hearing us enter, the boy looked up at us and dropped his crayon in surprise then smiled brightly, running across the distance of the room in just a few of his short strides. As my legs gave out, I fell to my knees.

"Dad!" He shouted as he sprang into my arms and I held him to me tight, feeling his small heart beating wildly against my chest. I stroked his head and hair in disbelief.

"Oh my God." I whispered into his neck as I let the tears roll down my face. "Charlie."

TBC.....


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 12**

**_Jack_**

I couldn't be sure how long I knelt there on the floor holding my son in my arms, caressing his hair, taking in his long-missed scent and feeling his rapid respirations against my chest.

Eventually, I held him out at arm's length to get a good look at him. Except for his clothes, he was exactly as I remembered him. Same hair color, same brown eyes, even the same missing front tooth. It was incredible. My son was dead, but now he was alive!

But another feeling welled up from the depths and despite my great joy to be holding my son again, something wasn't right and I could feel it. I knew that this was all too good to be true, especially with that asshole standing behind me.

"I missed you, Dad." Charlie started, giant tears forming and sliding down his cherubic face. "I waited so long for you...."

"I'm sorry, Charlie." I drew him close to me once again and he threw his arms around me again tightly.

"I thought you might never come for me. I want to go home." He told me, tears still shedding from his eyes. He was just a little boy caught up in something far beyond his control and understanding. Frankly, this was all above my understanding as well. I wondered how long he had been here thinking that I had failed him or abandoned him to this madman.

That's when the full force of that burgeoning feeling hit me and I turned around sharply to the figure behind me. He smiled in a way that merely sent shivers of rage building up inside of me.

"I know, Charlie. I'll take you home as soon as I can......I promise" I turned back to my son reluctantly and whispered into his ear, rubbing the top of his hair to reassure him.

"Okay." He half-smiled back, seeming convinced that I would take care of him.

"I need to talk to that guy for a sec,'kay?" I hitched my thumb behind me towards Ba'al. "Can you go and color me a picture? I'll be right back."

He gave me a worried look then looked over my shoulder to Ba'al then made eye contact with me again before nodding and whispering "Okay."

As soon as Charlie settled down at the table again, I turned on my heel to Ba'al and we walked outside the room. Once I knew I was out of Charlie's sight, I struck. Ramming the full force of my body against his, I slammed my forearm into his neck, pinning him to the wall by the shoulders. Immediately his Jaffa was in action, swinging his long stick-like weapon and clocking me in the temple, sending me sprawling to the ground before taking aim an priming his weapon to fire.

"Jaffa, Kree!" Ba'al called out to his guard and reluctantly, the big oaf lowered his staff, but maintained the deep furrowed scowl on his face as he backed away. Ba'al calmly walked over and looked down on me as I lay holding my throbbing and now bleeding head. A smile spread across his features as he took on a condescending posture, folding his arms across his chest.

"So, this is how you repay my generosity, O'Neill? I would think that bringing you and your son back to life for would be something you would appreciate a little more."

"I buried my son six months ago, I saw his casket being lowered into the ground." I ground out as I sat up and glared at him viciously. " I know he was in it, I had to see him before....before he was gone forever. So you tell me.....Is that really my son?"

"Yes, he is." Ba'al grinned. "I told you before that I was from the future. I knew when your son was going to die, I knew the funeral home you sent him to and I paid handsomely to have his body delivered to me before you could have him embalmed. Thankfully, he was brought here and placed in the sarcophagus before it was too late to revive him."

"If that's the case, then who did I bury?"

"The body you buried was a clone." He stated simply.

"You cloned my son? How?" I spat out incredulously.

"It was simple, really. All I needed was a small sample of DNA, easily procured by my Jaffa while your son attended school. A few cells was all it took. However, as I stated before, technology at this time on Earth is quite limited. I was able to clone him and rapidly accelerate his growth from an embryo to a child in age of approximately seven or eight years old in only a few weeks, But there were serious genetic flaws in the clone and it failed to thrive outside of the cloning medium."

"So, you're saying that you stole my son's DNA, made a clone, the clone died and you just swapped the bodies out? Then you brought my son back here? _My Son_. And he's been here this whole time?" My voice raised as my anger boiled over. "Now you want to dangle him in front of my face like some kind of carrot so I'll do your bidding, is that it? So what? You're going to kill him if I don't do what you want?"

"As you can see, it's all very simple, O'Neill." Ba'al opened his hands out smugly.

"I'm going to kill you." I stated with a sincerity that I had never uttered before, shaking with rage, I pointed a finger at him. "And When I'm done, there isn't going to be enough pieces of you left to resurrect." I spat out at him. It was then that his Jaffa struck out and backhanded me across the face.

"Remember where you are O'Neill." Ba'al began "Your son is safe, for now. Go- be with him- 'bond'. Do the things a father and son should do. Then we will discuss what I need for you to do."

Ba'al turned and strode away from me while the Jaffa hauled me to my feet and tossed me back into the room with Charlie, slamming the door and locking it tight. Still enraged at Ba'al, I slammed my shoulder up against the door repeatedly in frustration. My son had been alive for months and had been on his own with this monster the whole time. All I wanted to do was wrap my hands around Ba'al's throat until he turned blue and died, but all at once, I caught sight of Charlie looking across the room at me.

"Dad? You okay?" He asked. I stopped and sighed, still overwhelmed, but thankful to be hearing his voice, I slid down the wall and sat on the floor.

"C'mere, buddy." I held out my arms and he ran back over to me and I took him in my arms. Of course, it occurred to me that Ba'al might be lying. That all of this was some kind of trick, that this wasn't actually my son, that this was all some kind of cruel head-game. But, Charlie was all too real and too perfect for this boy to not be him. I could feel he was my son; a father just knows these kind of things.

"What's going to happen?" He asked, settling down into my lap as I held him tight.

"I don't know."

"Are we going home soon?"

"We will, Charlie. I promise." I told him, trying to keep the disbelief out of my voice and the tears out of my eyes. I wasn't sure how we were going to make it back, but I did know one thing for sure. I would do anything to keep my son safe. Anything.

**_Sam_**

"How's it coming?" Marlene stated as she walked up to me. The parts of the radio splayed across the surface of the table I sat at as I tried to salvage it. I looked up to see concern in her face. It was taking too long to fix the radio and I didn't have all of the tools needed to repair it nor did I have any of the spare parts needed. Normally, I would have had it repaired in under an hour, but it was hopeless. We were going to have to find another way of getting help.

I tossed another useless wire out of the way.

"This radio is pretty much toast unless you happen to have some spare diodes and a soldering iron around here."

"I'm afraid not."

"That's what I was afraid you would say." I groused.

"Daniel's getting worse. I took his temperature, it was over 105 and he's not making much sense when he's awake, I don't think he's even speaking English half of the time. We need to get him to a doctor soon." Marlene informed me. I looked to the bed at Daniel's still form and decided to abandon the radio, heading for him. Even asleep, I could see the lines of pain running across his features and the sweat sticking to his forehead spoke to the fever coursing through him.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked her.

"Well, we have two choices. One of us can walk into town and get help or we all go and the two of us carry Daniel in a litter."

I realized that Marlene was looking to me to make the decision here.

"What do you think will be faster?" I asked

"Honestly, it's a toss-up. If we carry him, it will slow us down, but when we get to town he can get help right away. On the other hand, if one of us goes into town, the way in would be faster, but there's still the return trip and then the trip out of here."

Marlene was looking at me expectantly. I was torn. Neither option was ideal, but a decision had to be made. As an Air Force officer, I was no stranger to making decisions, but never had I had to make one that meant the difference between life an death. Make the wrong choice here and Daniel could die.

"We'll take him ourselves." I decided with finality. "That way when we get to town, we can get to a doctor or hospital right away."

"Okay." Marlene agreed, " I have a cot in the back over here that we can turn into a litter. If we leave now, we could make it into town by nightfall as long as we keep a steady pace."

Marlene and I found the cot she was talking about and detached the legs, turning it into a two person-carry stretcher of sorts. After that, I went to the bed and sat on the side to wake Daniel up.

"Daniel." I shook his shoulder, trying to rouse him. He was slow to respond, but eventually his lids flickered open and he looked up at me with glazed-over, crystal blue eyes, a confused expression coming across his features.

"Hey." I greeted him.

"Hi." He returned weakly, his eyes drooping to fall back asleep again. "Jus' a couple more minutes.

"We've gotta go, Daniel."

"No." His eyes snapped back open "Please....Don't leave me....I don't know anyone in New York...I can come with you to "

"Daniel? It's me, Sam. We're not going to leave you, we're taking you with us." I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Maybe it was something from his past, coming to the surface now as his body temperature wreaked havoc on his brain, but whatever the case, it was clear to me now that we were making the right decision to get him out of here.

"Sam?" His eyes closed for a brief second then opened again. "Sorry...jus...lil out of sorts."

"I know Daniel. You have a bad fever, but we're gonna get you help."

"'Kay." He responded sleepily

"Let me just check your bandage before we go." He shivered as I took off the blanket and pulled up his shirt. The wound was no longer bleeding, but even with Marlene's earlier attempts at cleaning it with alcohol, it was obvious from the yellow ooze and distinct odor that seeped from it that his infection was serious. I cleaned and changed the wound as best as I could while Marlene brought the stretcher over to the bed. With considerable effort form the two of us, we managed to get Daniel out of bed and loaded onto it.

Even with the two of us carrying him, the going was slow and after an hour we had covered little more than a couple of miles. We stopped several times as we slowly traversed the forest floor and I was thankful that we brought plenty of water to keep us hydrated as I was sweating profusely, even though it was still early spring in the mountains. While Daniel might be thin, he was not as light as he looked and Marlene and I were exhausted by the time we made it a little over half-way to the town.

Deciding we should take a considerably longer break before continuing on, we sat Daniel down and collapsed ourselves to the ground. I grabbed the canteen Marlene had provided for me and took a gulp of water, then went over to Daniel's side to give him some. He was still and deathly pale as I touched his shoulder to wake him.

Eventually, I was rewarded with a slight cracking of his eyelids.

"Je dois etre mort parce que je vois un ange." He whispered as he looked into my eyes.

I didn't understand.

"Daniel?"

"He said, 'I must be dead, because I see an angel'." Marlene jumped in. " It's French. I took four years of it in high school, just never thought it would ever come in handy."

"You're not dead, Daniel and you are certainly not seeing an angel."

"Sie sind so Schoen" Daniel continued, his hand reaching up for my face.

"I think that was German." I said taking his hand from my face and putting it back on his chest.

"Yeah, I think so too, I just don't know what he said" Marlene agreed. "Just how many different languages does he know?" she asked when he started to mutter in Arabic.

"Quite a few. He's a linguist."

"I thought he said he was an archaeologist?" Marlene questioned.

"He's that too." I answered as I offered some of my water to Daniel, helping him to raise his head and take a drink. He didn't get much in before his eyes closed again and he went back into oblivion. "He has a doctorate in anthropology as well."

"Goodness. Now let me just guess here that you're more than just your ordinary, Air Force officer as well, right?" she asked.

"Well, I do have a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics." I told her somewhat sheepishly. I felt bad for not being able to tell her more. Not that she would really believe that I had been involved with a secret military program hoping to use an ancient alien artifact to travel great distances across the galaxy. "Other than that, I'm just your average, ordinary Air Force captain."

"How much further do you think we have to go?" I asked, changing the subject, but not actually wanting to know the answer as I was too tired to think about moving ever again.

"About four more miles." She replied with a level of weariness in her voice that mirrored my own exhaustion. I nodded and sighed. We both lay down on the bare ground, gathering what was left of our strength, knowing that no matter how tired we were, we had to keep going. Daniel was too sick for us to lay around for too long.

No more than hour later we were on our way again, my shoulder muscles burning, hands rubbed raw and blistered from carrying Daniel, but determined to keep moving. Marlene looked just as tired, but at least had had the foresight to put on a pair of leather gloves before we left, but she only had one pair and I would rather it be my hands that were sore than hers for we owed our lives to her. She could have decided to leave us out in the forest to fend for ourselves, but she took us in and was helping Daniel and I get help. There wasn't a word in the English language that I could say that would express my gratitude to her.

Finally, as we neared the first signs of civilization and began following a dirt road that lead into town, the last reserves of our energy were nearly spent and I began to doubt I could go on much longer. That's when an angel from heaven came to save us.

Okay, maybe it wasn't an angel with wings and halo per se, but Earl Higgins Jr. and his rusty, beat-up pick-up truck were about as close as I had ever seen one and I could have kissed the lip of his toothless grin when he pulled up alongside the three of us and asked "Need a ride?"

Loading Daniel up into the bed of the pick-up quickly, Earl took off for the nearest hospital and for the first time in days I felt as though we were actually going to make it out of this alive. I grabbed Daniel's hand and he opened his eyes, looking up at me serenely with a little smile on his lips.

"We're almost there, Daniel." I assured him

"I'm glad I met you." he told me quietly. "I would have liked... to know you better" As he spoke, his eyes closed once again, and he sighed.

"Daniel?" I asked, but he when he didn't inhale again, I cursed out loud, feeling for a pulse on his neck and failed to feel his artery beat against my finger.

I knocked on the rear window of the truck cab where Earl was driving with Marlene sitting beside him.

"Hurry!" I called out in a near panic. We had come so far, I couldn't let him die now. Earl responded to my desperate plea and pressed into the accelerator sending dust and gravel flying behind us as we sped down the country road and I started CPR.

_TBC......._


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

**Chapter 13**

**_Catherine_**

At the sound of the knock to my office door, I set down the tea I had been drinking back onto its plate and called out for whoever it was to enter.

General West strolled in a moment later followed by a very dour-looking colonel on his heel.

"Catherine, I'd like you to meet Colonel Harry Maybourne." West introduced the stiff, highly polished looking Air Force officer "He will be taking over the investigation into our leak problem."

I stood up and approached the colonel, offering my hand.

"So you are our plumber?" I asked genially, trying to keep things on the lighter side, but he refused to take my hand and only stood a little straighter, eying me judgmentally.

"You'll pardon me if I skip the niceties this time, Ms. Langford, but time is wasting here. We have a serious breach of security at this location and the President has given me liberal authority over this investigation. Rest assured I will find the traitor, but until such time, no one on this base is beyond scrutiny nor reproach, including yourself and the General here. Am I clear?"

Narrowing my eyes at the brusk treatment I just received from the colonel, I could only nod my head in understanding. From the way the General stiffened, I could tell that he wasn't too pleased with the situation either, but it had been his idea to bring in the colonel, so I could feel little sympathy for him if he now regretted his decision.

"Good." Maybourne continued. "To begin with, I'm going to need all employee files, mental and physical evaluations and after I have reviewed those, I will determine which employees and military personnel will need further interviewing."

"Interviewing or interrogating, Colonel?" I asked. He frowned and came closer to my face, invading my personal space, but I was not going to let him have the satisfaction of intimidating me.

"I don't need to remind you how important this program is to national security." He began "If the artifact were to fall into the wrong hands, like the Chinese or the North Koreans, it could be very bad news for all of us. Now, I have the authority to investigate this matter as I see fit, and I intend to do so to the fullest extent of my capabilities or is there some reason why you might want this not to proceed with all due haste?"

There was little arguing with the man as he had the President on his side, but if I had been about twenty years younger and as strong as I had been at that time, then I may have entertained the notion of knocking him on his block.

The rest of the day saw Maybourne begin his witch trial with a fervor that took even General West by surprise. Everything and everyone was suspect to him. No stone was left unturned and nearly everyone on base was brought in for questioning.

Perhaps that is why I was unsurprised to find myself sitting at a table with Colonel Maybourne glowering at me from the other end. I knew I had nothing to hide, but I could see in his eyes that that this was going to be more than just a simple chat with him. As soon as I sat down, Maybourne was up, my personnel file in his hand as he stood and strolled to my end of the table, then nonchalantly leaned against the table, half-sitting on its edge before he addressed me, letting me know just who was in charge.

"So, Ms. Langford. I've been reading your file." He flopped the file onto the table for dramatic effect. "Very interesting...You've been with the program since its inception."

"Yes, I have. If you read the file you would know that I lobbied for its creation."

"Indeed. And you even threatened to take your concept of the program to congress if the President didn't sign an executive order for it to be established, isn't that so?"

"Only partly" I began, seeing how he was trying to twist the truth around for his own gains "I never threatened the President. What I explained to him, was that I could easily go to congress and lobby for the funding the program needed or he could keep it within the military. I was merely pointing out my options to him. The president was the one that decided to keep the artifact secret from the rest of the government." I eyed him suspiciously, surely this wasn't why he brought me in here. Clearly, he was only pointing out my discussion with the President in order to get under my skin. The question that remained for me however, was why?

"According to Dr. Meyers, there was there was only a handful of people, including himself that knew that Dr. Jackson had even been considered for the program. You, General West and Captain Carter, who is herself missing. Dr. Meyers insists that his contact only wanted him to relay when you would be meeting Dr. Jackson. Now the question remains: how did that contact even know about Dr. Jackson's possible recruitment? Someone must have shared that information."

"Are you accusing me of the leak? Because if you are, just say it."

"Not necessarily. Like I said it was either you, General West or Captain Carter. With Captain Carter missing, it's looking more and more possible that she may not be as innocent as we first believed"

"You think Captain Carter faked her own kidnapping?" I was outraged. "That's preposterous."

"Is it?" Maybourne paused, his narrowing in on mine. "What makes you think so? Oh...Let me guess...She's your friend and you know she would be incapable of such a deceptive act, am I right?."

I held my tongue as he continued.

"You thought the same thing about Dr. Meyers, didn't you? And look where he is now- an admitted traitor that sold out his country for money."

"Captain Carter isn't here to defend herself. She's just an easy target for you, Colonel..." Just as I was about to tell him where he shove that theory of his when General West came bursting into the room.

"General, I'm in the middle of questioning...." Maybourne began in irritation. The General ignored him and directed his attention to me.

"Catherine- Captain Carter's been found."

"What? Where?" I nearly jumped out of my chair and strode past Maybourne, shooting him an evil gaze as I rushed to the General at the door. He was up as well and joining the General and I as we made a bee-line for the corridor.

"If you've found Captain Carter, I need to be there to pick her up as well." Maybourne stated as soon we headed down the hall. "She's going to need a full debriefing and I've got a lot of questions for her."

"You'll be coming along too, Maybourne. Just don't get your panties in a bunch." Maybourne huffed, scoffing at the General's lack of respect towards him.

"Where is she General?" I asked, trying to keep up with him and Maybourne as we quickly traversed the corridors and came upon the nearest elevator.

"Believe it or not, she's at a hospital in Canon City and Dr. Jackson is with her."

"Dr. Jackson, too? Are they alright?" I asked.

"Captain Carter appears to be a little dehydrated, but otherwise in good condition. Doctors are still working to stabilize Dr. Jackson. He came in with Carter performing CPR on him. I don't know the extent of his injuries yet as I only got a cursory report from her; I only know that he's quite ill."

"Oh, God...Wait...Canon City? As in Canon City, Colorado? That's only about 40 miles away....How did she end up there?" I wondered out loud.

"You can ask her yourself. We've got a chopper waiting up top to take us there."

We hurried to the surface and as promised, a helicopter was waiting to transport us to the hospital in Canon City. I was grateful that General West had seen to it that I should accompany him on the trip, Sam would need to see a friendly face. However, having Colonel Maybourne along for the ride as well was disconcerting and troublesome, especially after he practically accused Sam of being a traitor and I feared that he would tear into her as soon as we made it back to Cheyenne Mountain.

The trip was blessedly short and as soon as the chopper landed on the top of the hospital roof we exited the aircraft even while the blades above continued whirl, blowing wind all around us. The three of us, including a couple of SF's ducked down and rushed to a door where a doctor was waiting for us.

"You must be General West." The white-coated young man greeted us. "Follow me...I'll take you to your people."

We followed the young doctor to the elevator.

"Are you the attending physician for Dr. Jackson and Captain Carter?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm Dr. Hart."

"How are they?" General West asked.

"Captain Carter is doing well. We re-hydrated her and treated her for some superficial cuts and bruises. Dr. Jackson on the other hand, is stable now, but still in serious condition. He has a massive infection stemming from a puncture wound he received in his back. We're treating him with our strongest antibiotics and I'm hopeful he'll pull through, but only time will tell. He's lucky Captain Carter knew CPR otherwise, he'd be dead. As it was, we had to shock him a number of times when they arrived."

"Oh, dear." I breathed. I couldn't help but feel a little responsible for all of this. If I hadn't insisted on wanting to hire Dr. Jackson in the first place, then he wouldn't be in this predicament right now.

The elevator doors opened and pinged as we arrived on the bottom level. We quickly followed the doctor towards a set of double doors and down a corridor until we reached the critical care unit. Dr. Hart led us into a room with several other intensive care patients and at the very end of the bay, I caught sight of a shock of blond hair.

I hurried across the bay and as I approached, Sam looked up and recognition registered across her face.

"Catherine!" She smiled and was immediately on her feet, enveloping me in a tight embrace, which I returned whole-heartedly.

"Thank God you're safe, Sam." She nodded and I held her out at arms distance to take in her appearance, she had a few bruises on her arms, her hands had been wrapped and she was dressed in a fresh pair of scrubs, but otherwise, she was a sight for sore eyes. She gave me a tight smile that spoke of ordeal and took in a shuddering breath, gaining control of her emotions.

"I'm glad you came." She told me.

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away. How are you?"

"I'm fine." She looked down at bed beside her where Daniel Jackson lay still and pale, wires, lead and tubes connected at various places along his body. His glasses missing, hair cut unevenly short and laying deathly still, he was a far cry from the animated and somewhat nerdy man I met just a few days before.

"Daniel is hanging in there, too." Sam said softly. I patted her shoulder, then felt her stiffen to attention as General West, Dr. Hart and Colonel Maybourne joined us.

"General West." Sam greeted him and snapped off a salute.

"At ease, Captain." West ordered and Sam relaxed.

"I'm sure you have quite the story to tell us when we get back, Captain." Maybourne spoke up.

"Yes, Sir." She replied.

"I've got quite a few questions that are going to need to be answered." Maybourne he gave her an accusatory glare before he turned on Dr, Hart. "We're going to need to arrange for Dr. Jackson to be transported back to Cheyenne Mountain immediately, Doctor."

"He's barely stabilized." Dr. Hart began with concern and incredulity. "He needs time for the antibiotics to begin working before we should consider transporting him."

"I'm not asking here, Doctor. I'm telling you to get Dr. Jackson prepared for transport, but if you are unwilling to cooperate then I suppose we'll just have to find another doctor that will!" Maybourne began to raise his voice. "This is a matter of national security and I am placing Dr. Jackson under the protection of the United State Air Force."

"Colonel Maybourne-" West tried to bring the Colonel's tirade to a halt, raising a hand between the doctor and Maybourne.

"Please, Colonel." the Doctor pleaded, his voice dropping. "Lets take this out to the hall, we have patients here that are trying to recover."

"No need, Doctor. I have the backing of the President." He pointed out smugly. "Have Dr. Jackson ready to go in an hour or I'll have your medical license, understood?"

Without giving the open-mouthed Doctor a chance to respond, Maybourne shouldered past him and General West, heading for the door.

West turned to the doctor.

"I apologize for Colonel Maybourne's behavior Doctor, but he is right. I am under orders from the President to follow his lead on this investigation.

"Fine, General, but you've heard my objections, just don't blame me if the patient destabilized during transport."

Angrily, Dr. Hart strode off, leaving Sam, the General and myself alone with Daniel Jackson as he lay immobile and oblivious to the conflict around him.

"Isn't there anything you can do, General?" Sam asked. "Can't his transport wait a couple of days until he's in a better condition to travel?"

"I'm afraid not. Even though Maybourne's an ass, he may be right on this one. You and Dr. Jackson will be more secure in our facility should your kidnappers try another swipe at you."

"Even if the ride kills him?" I asked.

"We'll just have to hope it doesn't." The General replied.

TBC......


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

_A/N: Just to warn you, there are some spoilers for 'Moebius' in this next chapter and I'm sorry (again) it took me so long to get around to updating this story- I've been working on another story and inspiration hit me pretty hard with it and i felt i had to run with it before all of my ideas fled my brain. However, I still have a lot of ideas for this story as well, the only problem is just need more time to write, which I haven't had in too much abundance lately. Anyway, enough excuses-here's some more of the story:_

**Chapter 14**

**_Jack_**

Pulling the blanket up over Charlie's shoulder as he slept peacefully on the small bed, I ran my fingers through his hair and was reminded of all of those nights when Sara (or even sometimes myself) would sneak into his room when he was a baby and peek into his crib, just to make sure he was still breathing.

Then I thought of all those nights where he had to tuck himself into bed, not knowing where he was or where either I or Sara were.

How frightened he must have been.

But even though I hated Ba'al for what he had done to Charlie, deep down there was the seed of gratefulness that he was at least still alive and after I removed Ba'al's head from his shoulders, I could take him home to Sara.

There was no other bed in the room and no space left in the bed for me, so I slid down, sitting on the floor with m back to the edge of the bed and laid my head backwards so it rested on the mattress top. It wasn't long after that when I fell asleep as well.

However, I wasn't out for long before the door to the room opened and light from the corridor outside slipped in, waking me up into full alertness. I looked at Charlie, who was still sleeping then back at the large figure in the doorway.

"What do you want?" I asked the Jaffa.

"Lord Ba'al wishes to see you."

"Oh, _Lord _Ba'al wishes to see little 'ol me?"

"You _will _come now." The Jaffa stepped forward humorlessly and hauled me to my feet. Charlie stirred and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"What's going on, Dad?" he asked.

"It's okay, Charlie." I reassured him, even though the Jaffa maintained a death grip on my arm. "Just go back to sleep. I won't be gone long."

Thankfully, that was enough to satisfy Charlie's sleepy mind and he laid back down on the bed and turned on his side to go back to sleep. The Jaffa wasted no time dragging me to the door and out to the hall as I tried to wiggle out of his grip.

"I can walk on my own, Chewie." I griped and yanked my elbow away from him as I followed him down the hall. He said nothing in response until they came to a door and the Jaffa pointed towards it.

"You will enter and wait." He growled lowly as he pushed me through the door.

"How 'bout a 'please' next time?" I grumbled as the door shut behind us.

The small room was void of anything save for another one of those windowless steel doors at the other end and one superior looking Ba'al.

"Ah, Colonel." He wickedly smiled. "Nice of you to come so quickly. Come with me, I have something to show you."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Of course you don't, so let's not... how do you say it?... Engage in a pissing contest?"

"Fine." I relented, looking back at the Jaffa guarding the entrance. Ba'al opened the door further for me and allowed the Jaffa and I to enter into the area from which he just emerged. It was a large garage-like bay and in the middle stood a small cylindrical and crystalline object sitting upon a raised pedestal.

"What is this?" I had to ask.

"It is called a zero point module and is a piece of that Ancient technology I tried to explain earlier...."

"Okay...Does it do anything?" Ba'al turned my way and smiled.

"How can I put this into terms your simple mind can understand?"

"Small words usually help."

"It is much like a battery, except one that can power an entire city for thousands of years."

"Thousands of years, ya say?" I remarked sarcastically, unbelieving.

"Yes... Nine years from now, an archaeological expedition is supposed to uncover it and deliver it to the Air Force so they can then power the Stargate to travel between our galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy. Luckily, with my foreknowledge of where this dig was supposed to find said object, I was able to get to it first and now I can use it for my own plans."

"So, these ancients just left this....whatever it is....in the desert? And you're gonna do what with it now....Save on your electric bill?"

"Actually, the Ancients were not the ones to leave this in Egypt."

"No? Then who was."

"You were, O'Neill." Ba'al informed me with a smug grin.

"Me?" This sent my mind reeling. What was this mad man talking about now?

"Come, O'Neill...I have something else that we found to show you that will explain some of this."

Walking over to a small box, Ba'al opened it up and pulled out....a camera.

I was unimpressed.

"A camera?"

"Take a closer look...." I leaned forward a smidge to examine the small device- 'small' being the operative word as it took me a second to realize it was in fact a video camera, but tinier and unlike any I had seen before.

"It was a little difficult charging the battery on this device as it had yet to be invented, but I was able to get it up an running again."

"So, you're saying this camera is from the future?"

"Yes...Mini-dvd recorders like this one will not be commercially available in the United States for another few years. However, this particular camera was found inside of a canopic jar along with this ZPM, sealed up for almost five thousand years." Now I was completely confused- a feeling I was growing accustomed to lately.

"So let me get this straight...This video camera is from the future and from the past?"

"Precisely."

"How does this explain how I supposedly left all this stuff in the desert thousands of years ago?" I asked.

"Let me show you the video and you will understand."

Ba'al flipped open the camera's viewscreen and turned on the device. Moments later a face appeared on the camera. I recognized it immediately as Daniel Jackson, though slightly older looking, without glasses and wearing light colored robes like a native Bedouin.

Speaking a mile a minute, Jackson began explaining the Stargate, SG1 and pretty much all of the things that Ba'al had mentioned before and was joined by Captain Carter, but on the tape, she identified herself as a Lt. Colonel. Despite the massive download of information coming out of Jackson about aliens, wormholes and whatnot, the most shocking thing was seeing myself appear on the screen after some insistence from Carter and Jackson that I needed to appear on the tape.

"Damn...How'd my hair get so grey?"

Ba'al quickly flipped closed the viewscreen and shut down the camera just before another person named Teal'c was about to be introduced.

"Hey! That wasn't done yet...who's Teal'c? Why don't you want me to see him?" I wondered immediately what it was about the fourth member of our team that he didn't want me to know and why hadn't he been kidnapped like the rest of us?

"You've seen enough to know what's going on Colonel, as you saw for yourself..it was your team from the future that went back into the past, left the ZPM, the videotape oh...and there is one more thing you left behind that you should have been more careful to hide...."

Ba'al stalked over to a wall and punched in a code. Suddenly, the far wall began moving and retracting into itself, revealing another, larger portion of the garage or hangar really, since in the center of this bay was one of the most remarkable machines I had ever laid eyes upon.

"Whoa..." I stared.

"Now there's an understatement, O'Neill. We more or less stumbled upon this as well with our ground penetrating radar as we searched for the ZPM.....It was in a remote part of the desert and very deeply buried. You probably thought it would be forgotten forever there. It sustained considerable damage and its power systems were drained, but I was able to recharge them again with the ZMP.

"What is it?"

"For some reason, your people call it a 'puddle jumper' ....But I think it was your time machine. No doubt, Samantha Carter would have wanted to destroy the craft to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. However, you or Dr. Jackson must have convinced her that you could bury it deep enough and in a remote enough area that it could only be found by you. However, you should have listened to her."

"Time machine, eh? Kinda looks like a shuttle pod from Star Trek if you ask me."

"I was not asking you."

"Then just what do you want?"

"I need you to get this machine to fly and uncover yet another remarkable piece of Ancient Technology."

"Ah, I get it....That weapon you've been pining after, right?"

"How incredibly insightful of you to figure that one out, Colonel. Yes, I want you to help find that weapon and with your gene, I want you to make it operational."

"And if I don't?"

"I think you know what's at stake here, Colonel.....You wouldn't want your son to come to any harm, now would you?"

I fixed him with a murderous stare as his smile widened. If I only had a weapon I would have killed him again right there, but I knew there was little I could do at that moment to resist him with his jaffa standing by. But somehow, I would find a way, I vowed.

Ba'al had to die and had to get Charlie home.

_**Sam**_

"Sam!....Sam!" As a team of doctors and nurses swarmed around Daniel's bed, I turned to the voice that was calling me from behind, trying to get through the melee.

"Marlene!"

"What's going on? What's happening? I go for coffee and it's like an invasion."

"We're taking a chopper to our base." I walked back to Marlene and pulled her by the elbow where we could get a little privacy behind an empty curtain.

"I'm sorry. I never really got a chance to thank you properly for all that you've done for me and Daniel, but I've been ordered to leave and we have to go in just a couple of minutes."

"So soon? But Daniel is still in intensive care..."

"I know, I'm not happy about it either, but I have no choice." I tired to explain.

Marlene looked down for a moment, her eyes welling with unshed tears, I admired her tenacity and the strength she showed when she helped us to the town and I wished I could have had more time to tell her that, but as it was, I could hear the voices of Maybourne and the General barking orders.

"Thank-you, Marlene." I took the other woman into a tight embrace and she hugged me back. "I'll miss you." I told her.

"I'll miss you too."

Catching us both by surprise, the curtain suddenly slid open with a whoosh to reveal a red-faced Col. Maybourne.

"It's time to go, Captain." He informed her. "Who is this?" He asked, looking Marlene over.

"This is Marlene. She helped Daniel and I get out of the forest."

"Why wasn't I told of her sooner?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I thought you had been."

"I sure wasn't Captain. She's going to have to come with us, sign a non-disclosure agreement and answer my questions."

"What?" Marlene asked, shocked. "I not going with you. I'm going home. I did nothing wrong and you can't just order American citizens around like your soldiers."

"This is a matter of national security. You will be on that chopper back to our base, understood?" Despite her desire to protest, Maybourne turned to me before he stalked off. "Get her on the chopper, Captain." He ordered.

"Yes, Sir." I replied, hesitantly before he turned and left. "I'm sorry, Marlene. But I have to make sure you come with us."

"It's okay, Sam. It's not your fault." She sighed "I know you have to follow your orders, it's just that hate not being in control of my life. I think i would have made a horrible soldier."

"Trust me...I know that feeling- Sometimes I wonder why I ever joined the Air Force" I agreed with her. " Don't worry- I'll watch out for you. Maybourne probably just wants to ask you a few questions before sending you home, but doesn't know how to ask without being a jerk- your typical Air Force Colonel."

Minutes later we were all loaded onto a helicopter and flying back to Cheyenne Mountain. Thankfully, Daniel remained stable for the flight for the most part, except for a couple of harrowing minutes when his blood pressure dropped, but it was brought under control again, leaving me breathless with relief. For a moment there, I was truly worried that we might lose him and for some reason that scared me more than anything else I had experience the last few days.

It was funny, really. Not 'ha-ha' funny, but weird how close I felt Daniel. I had only known him a couple of days, but it was like I had known him all my life already.

After we finally arrived at the mountain, Daniel was whisked away under the direction of the one of the base doctors and I was assured by her that he would be well taken care of, but I would have to wait to see him. Frustrated that I had to be away from him, but understanding that I would just be in the way. I stayed with Marlene in an empty conference room until Colonel Maybourne showed up and I was herded over to a conference room and separated from her. Once again I found myself apologizing to her for not being able to stay with her, but I promised that I would see her again after my debriefing was concluded.

Thus began one of the longest and hardest debriefings I think I will ever have to face. I knew before hand that it wouldn't be an easy one. Trying to explain how we were kidnapped by a man who believes he's an alien God from the future with dreams of world domination was bound to be difficult, but Colonel Maybourne was turning out to be the kind of man that would not have been easily convinced of anything I had to say, no matter what.

After repeating our story more times than I could count, even the part where colonel O'Neill saved us from the jaffa only to be killed himself, it was only many hours later that I finally began to feel as though I was making some headway through the Colonel's thick skull and he might actually believe me.

Then he began grilling me about what I might know about Ba'al's organization, of who might be working from the inside of our program for him and how it appeared suspicious to him that I was one of only a few people who knew that Catherine was to meet Daniel Jackson and I that I 'just happened' to be kidnapped that same day. Trying to explain things about the fact that Ba'al knew where we were because he was from the future did little to sway his opinions or his arguments that I might be some kind of traitor or spy. He was on a mission to find a traitor whether there actually was one or not and wielding the power that the president had given him, I feared there was little I or even the General could do to stop him.

His accusations against me piled up as did my anger until I could no longer hold back my tongue.

"Colonel," I began. "I'm not sure if any of my explanations are going to satisfy you. You obviously need to find someone to blame for what has happened, but I can't give you the answers you seek. I've told you all I know and the only thing other thing I can tell you is that there is a body of a US Air Force Colonel that saved out lives out in the forest and we owe it to him and his widow to go back and bring him home. He saved our lives and all I ask is that we honor his sacrifice, sir."

General West had been silent for the most part during the debrief, but finally spoke up as he stood up from the table.

"She's right Maybourne. Jack was a friend of mine and we've wasted enough time on your witch hunt. I'm going to put together a team to go in and extract his body and find out what's at this compound out there."

"Witch hunt, General? I happen to believe that getting to the bottom of your leak problem takes top priority here. Colonel O'Neill's body isn't going anywhere and according to Captain Carter, the man that kidnapped them is dead."

The General stood as did Mabourne, his face reddening.

"We're done here, Maybourne. Captain Carter has been through enough and needs her rest."

"We're not done until I say we're done, General."

West stiffened and grew tall, stepping around the table until he was face to face with Maybourne, looming over him, his face set in a fiery expression.

"If you don't like it, you can always call the President, which is what I also plan to do here in just a moment. We'll let him decide which takes priority. I have a feeling he's going to want to know what was happening out there in those woods and just what is going on here with your 'investigation'."

"You do that, General. I'm not afraid of those stars you wear."

"You should be, Maybourne." The General gave the Colonel one last sneer before he motioned for me to follow him out of the conference room.

Relieved to be out of that man's presence, we both walked down the hall with a sigh.

"Thank-You, General." i told him gratefully.

"No, Thank-you, Captain, for reminding me of what's most important here. I'm still not certain about all of this time-travel stuff you were talking about, but we're grateful to have you back and we can't ignore the fact that there may be a potential threat still out there in our own country. "

"I'd like to be on the team that goes back to the compound, sir." I told him.

"I had the feeling you might." the General sighed. "As long as the doctor clears you, you have a go to accompany our Marine detachment."

"Thank-You, Sir." I turned to head for the infirmary, but turned back at the sound of the General's voice.

"I'll let you know when I've got a team read to go, Captain. So, get some sleep."

"Yes, sir. Thank-you again, Sir."

The General just nodded and headed for his office while I went for the elevator to take me back to the infirmary and get my clearance from the doctor and see how Daniel was doing.

The lights were down low as I walked into the small, make-shift medical area. Actually, it was little more than a large room with a couple of beds, but our program hadn't ever been in need of a medical facility until just now and as it was, the doctor we had was on loan from the Air Force Academy Hospital until a permanent position could be established.

The only bed being used at the moment was Daniel's. I took a moment to stand at the foot of his bed and breathe a little sigh of relief that he and I were safe. It would have been better if Colonel O'Neill had made it out too, but I silently I vowed I would find his body and bring him home as well, even if it was for the final time.

"He should be just fine." A feminine voice softly spoke from behind, starling me. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

I turned to face a petite, brown haired woman with kind eyes and I smiled a little in embarrassment at my jumpiness.

"So, he's stable now?" I asked the woman, obviously the doctor, given her long white coat.

"Yes, He should make a full recovery. His main problem was the infection, but thankfully the switch to a stronger course of antibiotics is working and his white cell count is coming down as well as his fever."

I nodded with a grateful smile before addressing my other reason for coming in with her. Minutes later she had me examined from head to toe until she finally pronounced me sound enough for the mission coming up.

After my physical, I headed back to Daniel's bed once again and took a seat by his head. He was still ghostly pale, but a touch to his forehead revealed a cooler temperature, reassuring me that he would indeed be okay.

As a feeling of relief washed over me so did a wave of exhaustion, but I wasn't ready to leave Daniel's side just yet. His slumber was peaceful and quiet, soothing to my troubled mind and I felt the tension that I had been living with for the last couple of days begin to fade. Seeing his hand lying slack by his side, I took it into my own and gave it squeeze. To my surprise, I felt his hand tighten around my own even though he continued to sleep on.

I leaned forward and placed my head onto the side of his bed rails, my hand in his and watched him dream until my own eyes closed and the world around me faded away.

_**Daniel**_

If I had known waking up was going up be so hard, I would have kept right on sleeping. But no, my mind kept telling my body that it was time to rise and shine even though my body had other notions.

Struggling against heavy eyelids, I managed to finally get one of them to open. Slowly, but surely the other followed a moment later after putting up a brave fight to remain closed.

I looked around at my new surroundings once the initial bleariness cleared and concluded that I was in some sort of hospital even though I couldn't make much out besides the IV stand and the monitors by my bed. Where this hospital was however, was still a question.

Along with the fuzzy vision came a vague pain in my side and fading memories of a cabin in the forest and of tall trees passing by overhead. Bit by bit, more came back to my sluggish mind as I tried to come to some realization of what had led me to this place and why I felt like such a piece of crap.

I turned my head to get a better look around and encountered a familiar figure seated next to me, fast asleep. That's when I remembered everything that happened.

"Sam?" My voice was harsh and rough, sounding weak to my ears. I didn't think she heard me as she continued to sleep. I was still resisting the temptation to drift off once again myself, but my need to know where we were outweighed my tiredness I wouldn't be able to sleep again until I could be certain that we were indeed safe and out of harms way. I opened my mouth to try and wake Sam again, but felt a hand grab my wrist and I turned sharply at the unexpected touch with a small gasp of surprise and looked up into the brown sympathetic eyes of a small woman that I could only assume was a doctor given her white coat.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you- I seem to e doing that a lot lately. I just wanted to check your pulse."

"S'okay....." I croaked, looking back at Sam, who continued to slumber away fitfully. That's when I finally noticed that she was holding my hand while still blissfully asleep,leaning against the side of the bed.

"Is she alright?" I asked with concern, seeing the bandages that covered her hands and the various cuts and bruises along her pale face.

"She'll be fine. She's a little scraped up, otherwise just exhausted. It's best to just let her sleep, from what I've been told, this is the first time she's gotten any rest since the two of you got here. You on the other hand, have been a might trickier case and you've got a pretty nasty bacterial infection going on now. I've got you on some IV antibiotics and so far, they seem to be doing the trick, but you had me worried there for a while...Your fever had gotten dangerously high and then they decided to transport you here, which didn't help matters...Foolish if you ask me, but no one ever does." She joked lightly before resting a hand on my shoulder. "Are you in any pain right now? I can increase your dose of Vicodin if I need to..." I shook my head even though my side did still hurt, getting information was more important than getting addled by pain killers.

"No...Who are you? Where-?...." I had trouble trying to speak with my scratchy voice giving out and sensing my discomfort, she grabbed a cup and filled it with a little bit of water.

"Just take a few little sips." She instructed and I did as I was told, then smiled my gratitude as the water helped to soothe my throat.

"Thanks."

"No problem. " she smiled. "I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself sooner. My name is Dr. Janet Frasier with the US Air Force and you and Captain Carter are my first patients here in our new infirmary under what has to be about a mile of rock beneath Cheyenne Mountain."

"Cheyenne mountain? Then we were right, we are in Colorado." I muttered to myself tiredly, feeling worn out already just from the short conversation I was having with the doctor.

"Yep, Welcome to beautiful Colorado." she greeted with just a hint of sarcasm looking around the windowless room.

"Funny, I figured there would be better views." I mumbled as my eyes grew heavier. Smiling, the doctor checked over my vitals and adjusted the IV, then a feeling of lightness fell over me and I vaguely came to the conclusion that she must have put something in there. Pain medicine or no, I felt secure for the first time in days and satisfied that Sam was safe, I squeezed her hand back as I let go and allowed sleep to overtake me once again, yielding to the recovery it offered.

TBC......


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

A/N: So sorry it has taken me so long to get back into this story as a severe case of writer's block hit me. I'm hoping that I can get around to updating it at a more frequent pace as this is my only WIP right at the moment. Thanks for hanging in there! :D

**Chapter 15**

**_Jack_**

"You _will _make this fly, Colonel." Ba'al insisted then suddenly turned to his Jaffa waiting by the door. "Bring the boy to me. He shall accompany us on out trip to Antarctica." The Jaffa quickly nodded and left. If I had known anger before, it paled in comparison to what I was experiencing right at that moment.

"What!? You leave him out of this, you sonuvabitch." I shouted with a pointed finger. " I'll take you to any damned place you want to go, but he stays right here."

"How else am I to ensure that you will not simply crash this ship into the side of the nearest mountain as soon as we take off? I know you would gladly take your own life in order to end mine O'Neill, but you wouldn't put your son's life in jeopardy. Having him on board ensures that we all reach are destination intact."

There was little time for me to do much of anything to Ba'al except glare as the Jaffa returned bringing Charlie with him just a moment later. Still bleary-eyed from being woken up so early in the morning, he rushed to my side as soon as soon as he saw me.

"Let's not waste any more time, O'Neill." Ba'al gestured towards the door of the craft. I hesitated, holding Charlie close to my hip, but when the Jaffa approached, I knew there wasn't much point in trying to take him on.

The shuttle's door opened and Ba'al casually strolled inside as we were forced to followed. Ba'al pointed to what I assumed was the pilot's seat up front, gesturing for me to take it.

Making my displeasure known with a scowl, I took Charlie with me to the front and had him sit in the co-pilot's seat. Ba'al loomed overhead as I sat uneasily. Strangely as soon as I was seated, the lights came on and the console before me lit up.

"Ooookay....now what?" I asked, a little creeped out by the ship that seemed to 'sense' my presence . "Is there a start button or and ignition switch somewhere?"

"Just think about powering the engines."

"Think about it?"

"Yes, O'Neill, surely even you can do that."

I sighed, not expecting much as I thought in my head 'turn on engines'.

Nothing happened.

"Well, guess it's a bust...." I threw up my hands.

"Try again, Colonel...." Ba'al insisted. "Close your eyes and concentrate this time."

"It's not gonna work..." I tried to argue. "I think your little toy here is broken."

"Try again...Now!" Ba'al grew angry and his Jaffa came closer with a menacing scowl.

"Fine." angrily, I closed my eyes and focused on the engines. Then suddenly, it was as if a circuit was completed and a connection between myself and whatever it was that ran that ship was made, a humming sound surrounded us and I opened my eyes as I felt a small vibration go across the ship. It was a little more than strange to have the ship read my mind, but at the same time, secretly thrilling.

"Ah...very good, O'Neill. I do believe we now have power and we can leave shortly." Ba'al turned to his jaffa. "Bring me the ZPM." The Jaffa quickly obeyed and a moment later came back in with the crystalline cylinder and placed it in Ba'al's hands.

"Ah...very good. Place the installation on alert until we return. I have a feeling that if Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter make it to civilization then the Air Force is bound to coming swarming fairly soon. Go ahead and implement self-destruct procedures, then secure the sarcophagus and transport it to the secondary site."

"Yes, my Lord, but what of the civilians and scientists here?"

"Make certain that none of them are to be captured alive."

"Yes, my Lord. But should I not come with you for your protection?" The Jaffa asked, looking in my direction.

Ba'al just smiled and walked up behind Charlie's seat, setting me on edge.

"I can protect myself." The next thing I know, he has a gun pointed to Charlie's head. "He won't be harming me." He turned his head my way "will you, O'Neill?"

"Dad?" Charlie asked, clearly frightened.

"You -" My hands shook in rage and I wanted to release a torrent of curses to the devil that wore a man's face, but was cut off before I could.

"Now, Now...Not in front of the child..." Ba'al smiled slickly. I glared, but then saw the still uncertain and fearful face Charlie wore and tried to push my anger aside for his sake.

"Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you, kiddo." I turned to Charlie and assured him with a confident voice and a tight smile that I knew could barely pass as comforting as I attempted to smooth out the murderous rage that boiled inside of me; God help me if he hurt Charlie.

"Then I suggest we get under way."

"Fine." I relented through my clenched teeth.

"Go ahead and open the garage door for us, then do as I instructed." Ba'al ordered his Jaffa and the giant oaf bowed and departed.

I fixed Ba'al with a glare before closing my eyes and thinking about wanting to make the ship airborne. I wasn't certain at first that it would work, but a moment later the ship floated off the ground just as a head's up display appeared before my face. I couldn't read any of the writing on it, but the moment I thought about getting rid of it and just relying on good 'ol manual flying, it disappeared and set of hand controls lifted up into position before me.

Had it not been for the evil alien sitting next to me, I would have said something about it being pretty sweet, but there was no way I was going to give Ba'al any indication that I might actually be in awe of the ship.

Up ahead, the garage doors lifted, opening up to the early morning darkness outside.

"Get us going, O'Neill."

I looked over at Charlie again and gave him a reassuring wink. Seeing him relax a little I set the craft in motion, surprised by how simple its operation was and finding that flying out of the garage and into the sky was not a difficult as I imagined it would be.

"Make sure you turn the cloak on." Ba'al instructed.

"This thing can cloak it itself?....you mean like the Klingons in Star Trek?" I asked.

"I have no idea what you are referring to, but yes....just think about making the ship invisible and it should activate."

"How will we know if it's working?"

"I imagine that will become clear if your Air Force doesn't try to blow us out of the sky."

"Right." I closed my eyes again and imagined the craft becoming invisible. "Hope that did the trick."

"You better hope it did. Now, take us to Antarctica." Ba'al demanded as if it was an everyday thing to be flying an alien spacecraft to the furthest reaches of the world.

"Don't suppose you brought a map?" I questioned sarcastically. "How am I supposed to find this thing you're looking for?"

"There are sensors on the ship. We will simply need to scan the ice for any Ancient technology."

"Yeah, simple." I grumbled.

I flew us high into the atmosphere at speeds I would have never thought possible, yet there was no usual pull of g-forces that one would expect when going that fast. It was only a short time later that the frozen fields of Antarctica came into view

"I'm impressed, O'Neill. You actually managed to find this continent..." Ba'al sneered. "Now let's find that weapon."

**_Daniel_**

Sam was gone when I woke again. Instead, an older woman sat in the seat in which she had been in. Though my mind was still a bit fuzzy and I wasn't sure what happened to my glasses, I recognized her right away.

"You're the woman from the car...Catherine, Isn't it?" I asked, still a bleary eyed, my voice sounding a little harsher than I had expected. "Sam talked about you."

"Yes I am, Dr. Jackson. I apologize for being so vague the last time we met, but given the secret nature of our program, there was little I could tell you at the time."

"Not even your name?" I asked.

"I suppose I should have at least told you that." She grinned somewhat sheepishly. "but I was fairly certain I would see you again."

"Yeah, I guess you figured I had no where else to go." I chuckled a little. "You would have been right."

"That was the assumption."

"Uh huh" I nodded.

"The offer still stands, you know." She began.

"Offer?"

"Yes, to translate our cover stones."

"Oh, yeah..."

She continued "Especially after recent events, it's become more important than ever to determine what we have here."

"You mean your 'Stargate'?" I asked, trying not to let on that I was dying of curiosity.

"If that is what you want to call it...we were calling it the doorway to heaven, but I suppose our translation may have been inaccurate...That's why we need your expert opinion. Are you up to it?"

"Sure..." I groaned a little trying to get up, I felt better, but my back still protested against the sudden movement. She held up a reproaching hand.

"I didn't mean right this second, Dr. Jackson. It can wait until you are recovered, besides, I don't think Dr. Fraiser over there is ready to let you out of her grasp just yet." At the mention of her name the petite doctor made her way over to us.

"No, she's not." Dr. Frasier interrupted. "Maybe later you can go with Catherine, but not until I've run a few more tests and your white blood cell count is closer to normal. How are you feeling?"she asked as she came beside the bed and fussed with a couple of the tubes.

"Fine." I responded.

"Good. You're fever is down and it looks like the antibiotics are working. How's the pain?"

"Not too bad." I replied. "How's Sam doing?" I asked looking around and seeing that she wasn't anywhere in the infirmary. "Where is she?"

Catherine and Dr. Frasier exchanged glances.

"What?" I asked growing concerned.

"She left this morning." Catherine informed with a concerned eye.

"She went home?"

"No....She's on a mission with a Marine detachment. They're going back to the compound."

"She's going back with them?" I asked, fearful of what she was going back to. "But, she and I just escaped from there, why go back?.... why her?"

"She requested to go." Catherine answered. "Believe me, I wasn't too keen on the idea myself, but if there's one thing you should know about Captain Carter is that she is stubborn as a mule and doesn't give up when she sets her mind on something." Catherine's face grew serious. " She wanted to go back with the team going in to retrieve Colonel O'Neill's body and to investigate that compound, perhaps even bring the people that did this to you to justice."

At the mention of Colonel O'Neill, I grew cold remembering the last words he spoke to me. I closed my eyes against the image of him laying bloody on the ground and focused on the promise I made to him.

"Catherine, I promised Colonel O'Neill..... that I would speak to his wife. Is there a way I can get in contact with her?"

"I'm sure that General West can get a hold of her for you. I'll ask him." Catherine offered.

"Thanks...." I turned to Dr. Frasier, my mind switching over to thoughts about the cover stones. I felt pretty useless just sitting there while Sam was off risking her life again. At least I might be of some help if I could translate those stones. "I guess we should get started on those tests so I can get to work..."

**_Sam_**

"The chopper will bring us in about two miles from the location of the compound, we'll repel and land nav it from there. We'll wait just outside the perimeter and observe and get a better idea of what we're up against before going in. Everyone got it?" Kawalski shouted over the incredible noise of the helicopter as he scanned the nodding faces of our small, four-person team. "Good, Feretti and I will take point, Carter and Brown you two take up the rear."

"Yes sir." I nodded as the helicopter swept over the valley just above the tops of the trees. I could feel my heart beat faster as we drew closer to the landing zone. Hugging my weapon closer to my chest , it's weight brought a satisfying comfort.

Just a few moments later, Kawalski was yelling at us to begin our descent. I grabbed a line and repelled from the helicopter along with the others. The chopper took off again just as soon as my boots touching the ground and we gathered for a few minutes to get our bearing before we took off towards the compound. The familiar terrain brought back the memories of fleeing though these same woods with Daniel not even a full24 hours ago, but this time I wasn't afraid. I was angry, armed and determined to find the people accountable for not only taking me and hurting Daniel but for Colonel O'Neill's death as well. My only hope was that all of what we has seen of Ba'al's operation would still be there by the time we finally made it.

The early morning was still dark by the time we arrived at the outer perimeter of the compound and we took cover in the woods nearby, watching the place from a distance. There was one lone guard standing watch outside, but otherwise all seemed to be quiet. That was until a large door began to open up, spilling bright light from inside into the dark morning.

"Holy crap, Captain. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Kawalski asked in disbelief as a small craft began to slowly float on out of the facility. "What is that?"

"I don't know." I replied in amazement. "It's not like anything I've ever seen before...Definitely not Air Force. I'm not even sure how it can be flying, it doesn't appear to have any sort of propulsion system.....Whoa!" I exclaimed as the ship turned and flew our way, through the cockpit window I made out three faces: one was a little boy I didn't recognize, but the other two I knew right away.

"Oh my God, That's Colonel O'Neill and that's is Ba'al." I informed Kawalski in astonishment.

However, before I could comprehend how both men that I had seen die were still alive, the ship suddenly vanished without a trace and without a sound.

TBC....


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**_Sam_**

"Carter, are you sure that you saw Colonel O'Neill?" Kawalski asked

"Yes, I'm positive and Ba'al too." I replied adamantly.

"Holy God, this is some weird shit going down." he muttered as he thought about which direction to go next and shook his head.

"Wait....Major, look!" Brown pointed to the building, a black truck was pulling out of another garage and heading out of the compound. I pulled out my binoculars to get a better look at it's details and relayed them to Kawalski.

"Brown, contact command, tell them we need air surveillance on that truck and have it followed asap, wherever it's going might lead us to more about what's going on here."

"Yes, sir." Brown replied and grabbed his radio.

"Any idea what kind of ship that was, Captain?" Kawalski asked me.

"No, sir. I wouldn't have thought any of this possible, I mean, the science to explain how that ship could cloak itself like that is so far beyond us that I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Alright....let's circle the perimeter and get a better idea of where the best place to enter."

"Sir," Brown interrupted. "Command has a helo out to follow that truck."

"Good, let's...." Before Kawalski couls continue a huge explosion rocked the compound and surrounding area. I felt the shock wave nearly knock me to my backside as sat back up in shock as I watched the building go up in flames.

"Holy shit!" Kawalski swore as he got to his feet, I jumped up as well and followed him towards the now burning compound. "Brown! Call command, tell them we need fire suppression teams here now!"

From inside the compound I heard a sound that will echo through my head for the rest of my days. Screams could be heard coming from inside the walls of the building. I wanted to run towards them, help save the people inside, but as soon as I took a step towards the inferno, I was pulled back by Kawalski.

"No, Captain! There's nothing we can do, that fire is too intense and we're not equiped for a rescue. We'll just have to wait for the firefighters to get here." I turned to him, wanting to shout back at him, that we needed to do more to help the people trapped inside, but he was right, by now the whole place was a fireball and the screams were dying down. But for me, their voices will forever haunt my memories.

**_Daniel_**

I must have fallen asleep at one point with my conversation with Catherine, because the next thing I know I have Dr. Frazier tapping me on the shoulder and Catherine is no longer nearby.

"Daniel?.....Daniel? You awake?"

I mumble a little then pry my eyes open to peer into the friendly brown eyes of the resident doctor.

"I guess I am now."

"Good. You have a visitor that wants to say goodbye."

"Oh?" just as I ask, Marlene walked around the curtain and smiles at me.

"You're looking a lot better, Daniel." She begins.

"That's all thanks to you. I probably would have died out there if it hadn't been for you and Sam."

"I have the feeling that you're the kind of guy who would do the same for me."

"All the same, thank-you so much, Marlene.I owe you much more than I can return."

"No problem....Look, I just wanted to say good-bye. Looks like I finally passed the 'I'm not a kidnapper' test that your Colonel Maybourne has put me through for the last six hours and I'm free to go home."

"He's not my Colonel Maybourne. I'm just a civilian, remember?"

"True enough. Anyway, I'm glad to see you're getting better. " She bent down and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, making the blood rush to my face uncontrollably. "Take care of yourself" She got up and turned to leave with a small wave and I never saw her again.

Hours passed and I was anxious to here word from Sam. I asked Dr. Frasier several times if she had heard anything and I'm sure she was beginning to get a little irritated with me for my continually prodding and when I felt myself drifting off to sleep again, I suspected that she may have put a little something in my IV the last time she came to check on me.

I'm not sure how long I was out but, Dr. Frasier was hovering over me again when I cracked my eyes open again.

"Ah, rise and shine sleepy head." she greeted me with a chipper smile.

"Ugh..." I responded intelligently. "What did you do to me?"

"I only gave you a light sedative, you needed the rest."

"Any word..."

"About Captain Carter? No, not yet, but I promise I'll let you know when she comes in. Just be patient."

"Patience isn't one of my strong points, I'm afraid." I confessed and Dr. Frasier grinned as if she had already figured that part out about me.

Just then Catherine entered the infirmary and walked up to Dr. Frasier and pulled her aside, speaking into her ear. She shot a look over at me and I sat up straighter in my bed. Something was up. I just hoped I would be allowed to be let into the loop. After the brief conversation with each other that I couldn't hear the doctor and Catherine walked back over to me.

"Mrs. O'Neill has arrived and is in a conference room on the surface." Catherine began.

"I'd like to see her."

"That's all up to Dr. Frasier." Catherine replied and I turned pleading eyes towards the small doctor. I knew that she wouldn't be able to say 'no' to me. Sarah was always on my case about how pathetic I was when I pulled my puppy-dog eyes routine, but I always came back by saying how it worked every time. I saw Dr. Frazier's face soften and she nodded her assent.

"Alright, you may leave the infirmary to see her, but you stay in the wheelchair and the IV goes with you, understand?"

"Perfectly." I agreed.

I was actually feeling well enough that I could have walked on my own to the conference room, but not wanting to get on the small, but stern doctor's bad side, I took the wheelchair graciously and allowed an airman to push me while Catherine accompanied us to the surface. This wasn't going to be easy. By now, Mrs. O'Neill had already been informed of her husband's death, but how would she react to me telling her Colonel O'Neill's last words?

Reaching the conference room where Mrs. O'Neill was waiting, I blew out a long breath as Catherine opened the door and I was pushed inside. Sara O'Neill sat at the end of the table a pile of tissues surrounding her. Her eyes were red from crying and there was a weariness to her features that told me just how much she had lost.

"Mrs. O'Neill? I'm Catherine Langford and this is Dr. Daniel Jackson" Catherine introduced us as we came in taking the blond woman's hand.

"You were with my husband when he was taken, weren't you? You were with him when he....died?" She asked, choking back more tears.

"Y-yes. I was." I stumbled, not really knowing where to begin. I motioned for the airman pushing the wheelchair to move me in next to Sara and he pushed me so that I was only an arm's length away.

"I'm very sorry for you loss..." I began. " The Colonel- Jack, uh...he wanted you to know that he was thinking about you before he died. He wanted me to tell you that he loved you very much."

This revelation brought on a fresh new round of tears and I found myself at a loss for what to do. So I cautiously took my hand and laid it on top of her's. She didn't pull away but smiled a little through her tears.

"Thanks for letting me know....things haven't been good between us the last few months, since Charile..... I was even thinking about leaving him. But now, I'd give anything to see him again. " her voice trailed off. "I've lost my whole family." she softly spoke despondently.

"I just wish there had been more I could have done for him." I told her truthfully.

"You're doing it now.....thank-you....for being there for him. It's good to know he didn't die alone."

**_Jack_**

I figured we had to be somewhere over Australia by the time I had total comfort in flying the ship. It was a wonder of technology, all of that power right at my fingertips and half of the time all I had to do was think and the craft responded. I wondered to myself what else the craft could do that might help me and Charlie get out of this situation. I was just daydreaming of the many ways I could try to kill Ba'al. He was too close to Charlie for me to lunge after him and crashing the ship was also out of the question with Charlie aboard.

For some reason my mind wandered to TV documentary I once saw about a plane disaster where half of a soccer team got blown out of an airplane while flying over the Andes and they ended up eating each other to survive. Of course, the whole cannibalism thing wasn't going to be of much help to us, but thinking about it made me wonder about one possibility. I thought about the scene in that documentary where the plane broke apart, it's wings had been sheared off by the impact with the mountain peaks and only the fuselage was left flying though the air.

I looked over at Charlie again and he looked back with a look of total trust on his face. God, I couldn't believe I was even thinking about doing what I was thinking about doing.

"How ya doing, kiddo?" I asked.

"Okay." He replied, still looking a frightened was trying to be brave for my benefit. I couldn't help but smile back in pride.

"You got that seat belt on tight?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You know they always say..." I said looking back to Ba'al who eyed our conversation with some suspicion. "buckle-up for safety."

"I know, Dad."

"How far are we from Antarctica, O'Neill?" Ba'al asked.

"Well, we should be there pretty soon. Hope you packed a parka or two for this excursion. I hear it's a little nippy down there."

"I am well prepared for this. You need only worry about getting us to our destination."

_Where you'll no doubt kill us_, I thought.

The more I thought about the plan I had gathering in my mind, the more resolute I became to follow through with it. Knowing that the aircraft responded to my thoughts, I put one idea into my head an concentrated on it: _Blow the back hatch_.

To my left, a panel lit up, a line of writing blinking in red. I couldn't read the language, but I understood it to be a warning like 'pressing this button will most likely get you killed, Stupid'. However, I prayed it was what I was asking for. With a quick look to Ba'al again, I noted his attention was drawn to the view screen and the ever growing patch of white landmass that we were quickly approaching. It was now or never.

I sent up a small prayer and in two movements, I mashed on the panel while pulling up sharply on the controls. Chaos erupted as the rear of the craft exploded open and I shot us upward into the stratosphere.

Charlie screamed as the cold wind rushed through the cabin. Ba'al immediately lost his footing and and landed on his stomach, sliding backwards towards the open door. The gun he had been holding slipped out of his hand and tumbled behind and flew out of the craft. To my chagrin, Ba'al was a quick thinker and grabbed hold of the bottom base of the supposed time machine before he could be sucked out the rear as well.

"Hold on tight, Charlie!" I yelled over the noise of the wind as I increased our angle of ascent. Looking back, Ba'al was still hanging on, his face contorted in a feral gesture of utter and insane anger. In a maneuver that would have made any aircraft built by a human stall, I rolled the craft from side to side, hoping to shake the bastard loose, but his hold was too tight. I was going to have to dislodge him myself.

I leveled the craft and set what I hoped was the autopilot then jumped out out of my seat. Ba'al was attempting to get up from the floor, but a swift kick to his face stopped that. Stunned, but not out, Ba'al grabbed my boot and pulled me down with him. He was on top of me with a strength that surprised me. I lashed out and we fought bitterly. My fist making contact with his face just as much as his was making it onto mine. We rolled around the floor of the cockpit, the open rear hatch an ever present reminder that one false move could send either one of us flying out of the craft to our death.

I rolled onto my back, but before Ba'al could leap on top of me again, I drew in my knees and punched my feet out so that my boots made contact squarely with his chest. Knocked off his balance, Ba'al fell back and I wasted not a moment diving after his and slamming my fists into his face over and over again. Ba'al was still struggling, but dazed and bleeding, he was weakening as I hauled him up to his feet by his collar and began pushing him towards the open hatch.

"Please, O'Neill...." He begged, but I paid him no heed.

"No one messes with my boy." I growled and with an powerful shove, I threw him out into the open air.

I fell to my knees in exhaustion breathing heavily as I watched his body fall towards the snowy land mass below until it was no longer visible.

"Dad!" Charlie shouted from the front.

"It's okay, he's gone." I assured him as I struggled to get up and made my way back to the pilot's seat. I regained control of the craft and concentrated on sealing the hatch. The door closed over it once again, ending the freezing wind swirling around us.

"Dad? are you okay? you're bleeding." Charlie asked

I turned back to look at my son and gave him a genuine smile. It was the best I had felt all day.

"I'm just fine."

"Is he....is he dead?" Charlie asked with a worried expression.

"Don't worry, there's no way he can survive that fall and even if he did, he'd be lost in the middle of Antactica. He can't hurt you or me or anyone else anymore."

"You were so cool, Dad." He stated, his face full of admiration. "I never knew you could fight like that."

"Well...." I began with a little smile in his direction. "When I have something important to fight for, I'm pretty hard to beat."

He gave me back the best smile I had ever seen on his face and a moment later he had taken off his seat belt and was in my lap giving me a giant hug. I buried my face in his hair then kissed him on his cheek. He was mine again and safe, the joy flooding through my veins was impossible to deny.

"How about we get going home?" I asked.

"You bet!" He grinned from ear to ear then gave me another giant hug. My heart swelled and with Charlie still sitting on my lap, I turned the craft around and set a course back towards home.

"You think Mom will be surprised to see us?" He asked.

"Oh boy, you have no idea." I laughed and at the top speed we soared through the air, heading north.

TBC.....


	17. Chapter 17

_A/N: So sorry to abandon this story for so long.**hangs head in shame** I hate to make excuses, but we moved (To Colorado Springs from Texas, we actually don't live too far from Cheyenne Mountain) I had a car accident (wasn't injured, but my car was totalled) and finally, I came down with a horrible case of writer's block. However, I think it's time for me to start writing again and I just wanted to thank everyone that's kept up with this story despite the many delays. I especially want to thank JAJJAJ, who encouraged me to keep going with this. Warning: Un'beta'd, so it's probably riddled with mistakes. :D_

**Chapter 17**

_**Sam**_

The wind kicked up as the rotating blades of the helicopter blasted those of us standing on the ground awaiting pick-up. Little was said as we flew back to base, the events at the compound still too fresh on our minds for chatter or playful banter. Normally Major Kawalski was a talkative and amiable man, but not then, not when we had just witnessed so much death and destruction. A pall of subdued melancholy settled over us and by the time we came back to base it carried over with us.

After a debriefing with the General and Catherine, we learned that the truck we had seen leave the facility was still yet to be found and that as of their last count, twelve bodies had been recovered by the firefighters at the scene of the explosion. The mission had been a complete disaster and failure.

Failure is not a term I am comfortable with, never have been nor ever will be. I once got a C on a test in my sixth grade social studies class and was inconsolable for hours. With every aspect of my life I sought that unattainable goal of perfection, to be the best, to be more than what was ever excepted of me. And as a woman in a male dominated profession, I needed that drive just to prove I was just as smart, just as strong and just as capable as any man would be. But that morning, I got my first taste of what real failure felt like and I hated it.

After we were dismissed from the debriefing, I went directly to the showers and turned the water on to near scalding, letting the hot streams wash away the soot and dirt that coated me. The shower has always been a great place for me to think, but just then I didn't want to think. I didn't want to dwell on the fact that we never made it into the facility nor that we were unable to save anyone inside. To add to that, I still couldn't reconcile the fact that I thought I saw Colonel O'Neill flying that alien aircraft we saw taking off from the compound. My logical brain could not accept what I saw as true when I saw O'Neill die with my own eyes. Even though Kawalski had agreed that the man we saw in the cockpit looked an awful lot like the Colonel when we reported it to the General, he was cautious to point out that in the early morning darkness, our eyes could have been deceiving us.

I'm not sure how long I stood under the water without even moving, trying not to think but unable to keep my mind from playing out that morning over and over again. It wasn't until another airman came in to take her shower that I snapped out of my reverie and quickly washed up and shut off the water.

I dressed into my clean set of BDU's and decided to forgo any thoughts of breakfast and headed for the infirmary to see Daniel. He would want to know how the mission had gone. He wasn't going to like what I had to say to him, but I felt he deserved to know what had become of Ba'al's facility.

I strode down the corridors, avoiding the looks that I got from the other airmen as I walked along until I reached the infirmary doors. It was as if I could feel them staring at me. Finally making to the infirmay, inside Dr. Frasier sat alone at a desk, writing into a chart and spoke without looking up.

"Daniel's not here." She informed me. I glanced over to his bed and saw that he was indeed gone. I felt a little catch in my throat. What could have happened while I was gone? Was he still okay?

"He's not? " I asked. The doctor looked up with a calming smile and pointed up with her pen.

"He's on the surface at NORAD. Mrs. O'Neill is here, he wanted to talk to her."

"So, he's doing better then?" I breathed in relief.

"Yes, the infection is under control, but he's still pretty sick and I was just about to go and get him and make him get some sleep. He's been worried about you, you know- Maybe you should come with me."

"I don't know-" I began. The last thing I wanted to do was see Mrs. O'Neill. There was nothing I could tell her about that morning, about how I thought I saw her husband flying a ship that may be of alien origins or that we had no idea where he was or if he was indeed still alive. What could I say to her that could even begin to help her?

"C'mon." Frasier gestured with her head toward the door. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but it might do you some good to talk to her."

I didn't really see how speaking with her would do me any good, but I realized I was just being cowardly. The truth was I didn't want to admit to this woman that we didn't have her husband's body to bring home to her.

"Alright." I sighed and followed the doctor out of the infirmary and up the elevator to the surface. Dr. Frasier led the way down a long corridor and to a stark, steel door. She peeked through the window and tsk'd audibly.

"He looks tired. I'm glad I decided to get him back to the infirmary."

I came over and looked over the doctor's shoulder into the small conference room. Daniel sat at the other end of the room, holding Mrs. O'Neill's hand as she cried into a tissue. Frasier was right, with shoulders slumped and dark circles casing his eyes, he looked worn out and in need of a break.

"I shouldn't have let him go for this long. He needs to be resting where I can monitor him." Dr. Frasier wasted no time after saying that to knock on the door at the same time that she opened it. Daniel looked up and smiled at me and Mrs. O'Neill lifted her head, her eyes bloodshot and weary with grief.

"Sam, you're back." I could see the questions burning in is eyes, but my answers for him would have to wait until Mrs. O'Neill had left.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Daniel needs to head back to our infirmary." Dr. Frasier explained.

"That's okay-" Daniel turned to Mrs. O'Neill. "Sara, this is Dr. Frasier and Captain Carter. She's the other person that was taken along with Jack and myself."

Sara turned her eyes to me and gave me a weak smile in acknowledgment. She then held out a hand and I tentatively walked over to shake it.

"Mrs. O'Neill...I'm so sorry..." I was surprised to find my voice cracking and tremulous. Try as I might I couldn't find the words that might comfort this grieving woman.

"Thank-you, Captain. Daniel told me how Jack.- how he saved you both and I'm grateful to know that he wasn't alone when he died."

"We wouldn't have made it out of there without him...he was a true hero." I told her as tears formed and welled in her eyes again. She just nodded and brought the tissue back up to her eyes to wipe away the tears.

"Alright, Daniel." Dr. Frasier cut in apologetically moving in behind his wheelchair. "It's time to go."

Daniel nodded at the doctor and turned to Mrs. O'Neill, speaking softly and patting her hand with genuine concern. "Sara, if you ever need me, just call here and someone will get in touch with me."

"Thank-you, Dr. Jackson....I appreciate you coming to see me."

"I can have an escort drive you home if you like, Mrs. O'Neill." I offered as Dr. Frasier wheeled Daniel out of the room.

"Sure." She nodded, distracted.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" I asked seeing distress mark her features.

"No...it's just that home isn't what it used to be...too many memories..." Her voice trailed off. I understood her pain. I remembered the day my father, brother and I came home after my mom's funeral. The emptiness of our house without her made it feel as though it would never feel like home ever again and to be honest, it never really did.

"If you like, I could drive you home." I offered without even thinking.

"That's very kind of you, but I know you must be terribly busy."

"It would be my honor."

She nodded then in acquiescence with a weak smile.

"I just need to go and see about getting a car and I'll be right back." I explained as I had no personal vehicle at the mountain and would need to requisition one from the base. She told me she would wait in the conference room while I procured the car.

I left the room and began my trek down to the motor pool, but about halfway there, a young airman ran up to me.

"Captain Carter, ma'am?" She called out, out of breath as she must have run all the way to find me.

"Yes, airman?" I asked the young recruit.

"General West needs to see you right away. He says it's urgent."

I followed the airman back to the elevator and we began out descent back down the mountain. I hurried to catch up with the young woman as she eagerly aimed to please the General by bringing me back to him as quickly as possible.

Entering the control room, I found the General hovering over an airman manning the radio. He turned to see me enter and waved me over to him. Confused as to what was going on, but curious to find out, I hurried over.

It was then that a voice came over the radio, one which I hadn't expected to hear ever again.

_"I repeat...This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force. Requesting instructions for landing."_

TBC...


	18. Chapter 18

_A/N: Thanks again for all of your encouraging feedback on the last chapter. I feel like my muse is finally firing back up, so here is the latest installment. :D_

**Chapter 18**

_**Jack **_

"Wow" Charlie looked out the window through the passing clouds, his eyes lit up with wonder. "This is so cool, Dad. Do you think this ship can go into space?"

I looked over to my son with a smile. "I don't know, but I think we should hold off on a test flight until I actually figure out how to land this thing." I searched the console for anything that might be a radio, I was going to need to contact the Air Force somehow. The trouble would be finding the damn thing first.

So far, everything I had needed to fly the ship had just appeared when I needed it. I hoped that by thinking hard enough about it that one would appear before me magically. Of course, it's never that easy. I concentrated harder, but still nothing happened.

Frustrated, I wondered if the thing even had a radio I could use to contact anyone. That's when I thought that I needed to focus on a frequency instead. It had been awhile since I last flew anything, but like riding a bike it was almost second nature to remember the frequency to the Air Combat Command's primary channel. That at least would get somebody's attention. I closed my eyes as I visualized making a call and in when I opened them again, a green light was flashing off to my side on the console.

"This better be it." I spoke to myself, wincing as I tentatively touched the light. A slight crackle sounded and I gave a little whoop of triumph.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, forgetting that I was transmitting. I cleared my throat this time and began again. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, retired. I am in need of assistance, over."

A few seconds later another voice came over the radio. "This is Air Combat Command, sir. This is an Air Force designated channel only and prohibited from civilian use."

I grumbled in irritation. I finally made contact with the Air Force and now this bonehead was gonna kick me off the radio. "Listen...I need to speak with General West-" I started and laid into the poor guy on the other end. I may have also made some off-color remarks about his questionable parentage, but I just wanted to get home. However, when Charlie asked, "Dad, what's a bastard?" I knew I had to reign my anger in.

Finally after that, I was passed over to a superior officer. Thankfully, that officer happened to recognize my name. I'm not really sure how he knew me, I couldn't remember meeting a General Hammond before, but he said he had met me long ago and wouldn't explain further.

I dismissed it as I was transferred again to General West out at Cheyenne Mountain. After confirming my identity with him and convincing him that I was indeed not dead, but alive and that Ba'al was gone and oh, I just happened to be flying his invisible spaceship. Surprisingly, he seemed to take it all in stride.

"Standby for instructions for landing at Peterson Air Force Base, over." He ordered. Peterson had been my last assignment with the Air Force so I knew the lay of the land and even in this strange aircraft, I was confident I could find it easily.

"Copy that, out." I replied, I turned to Charlie who was still mesmerized by the view. "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah! Where are we now?" He asked.

"Oh, somewhere over Mexico, I think." I had to guess by the land below us.

"How long is gonna be?"

"At this speed it shouldn't take us too long."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to pee."

I hurried to switch on the radio transmitter once again.

"This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, requesting landing instructions ASAP....I repeat this is Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, requesting landing instructions..."

_**Catherine**_

I was just finishing a cup of tea and reading over the report Col. Maybourne was going to submit to the president, grateful he had finally left for Washington, but grumbling about the inaccuracies and his conclusion that there had to be a mole in our program beyond Dr. Meyers when a commotion outside my door caught my attention. I caught a glimpse of Captain Carter rushing past and I went to investigate what was going on.

I hurried to the control room and found Sam huddled with General West near a radio.

"Col. O'Neill, proceed to Peterson Air Force Base. Keep the ship cloaked until we have you secured in the hanger, we'll have a transport sent to pick you up and bring you back to Cheyenne Mountain."

"_Roger that. Oh, General West, I have a passenger on board with me... My son, Charlie."_

West turned to me and Sam, confusion marking his face. He toggled the radio switch. "Repeat that, Colonel."

"_I'll explain when I get there, sir.... It's a long story."_

"I'm sure it is, Colonel. What's your ETA?"

"_She's a pretty swift flier, sir. I'm over the Texas panhandle now and should be in Colorado Springs air space in about...oh five minutes or so."_

I saw Sam's eyes light up and knew that she was going to have a field day when she got her hands on that ship. Then she gasped slightly and turned to me suddenly as if remembering something.

"Oh, no...Mrs. O'Neill..."

"She's still here?" I asked.

"I was going to take her home. What do we tell her?"

With Sam and the General busy with guiding Col. O'Neill home, I found myself being the bearer of the news. I still wasn't sure how to explain everything to her as I approached the conference room door. She looked up in surprise as I entered, not expecting it to be me.

"Oh, I thought captain Carter was going to be taking me home." She started.

"...Something has come up, Mrs. O'Neill..."

I wasn't prepared for her reaction to the news as I explained that her husband and her son were on their way to the base. She stood, blankly turning towards the wall.

"They're both safe now."

"This cant be...this isn't happening...." she began quietly, her voice quavering. "My son...he's been dead for six months..." She turned, gasping and grabbing the table before her, gripping the edges until her knuckles turned white. I rushed over to her and laid as comforting a hand as I could on her shoulder. She shuddered and shook.

"I'm sorry..I know this is a lot to take in...." Suddenly her face took on an ashen color and I tried to catch her as her knees buckled and she slid down to the floor, fainting dead away.

_**Jack **_

Landing the aircraft was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. It glided easily into the open hanger and as soon as the doors were shut, I allowed the craft to come back to visibility. I looked over at my son and he was smiling from ear to ear.

"We're here." I announced to him. He leaped from his chair and hugged me tight.

"I knew you'd get us home, Dad." I held him back, my heart swelling and I'm not ashamed to say that a my eyes welled up slightly. We were back and safe, my son was in my arms- it was a feeling that defied understanding and definition.

"How 'bout we get going?" I asked after a few moments.

We both got up and headed for the rear door after I released him and as it opened we were greeted by a short, nervous looking airman with glasses at the end of the short ramp.

"Col. O'Neill?" He asked.

"That would be me, Airman."

"I'm Sgt. Harriman, Sir. I've been sent to escort you to Cheyenne Mountain."

"Great...Lead the way, Sgt."

We piled into an Air force issued van and made our way across the base and into Colorado Springs traffic. The whole time on our trip to the mountain, Charlie chatted endlessly about all the things he had missed about the city and I readily agreed to a visit to the zoo, a camp out at Garden of the Gods and a hockey game in Denver.

As we pulled up to the main gate then parked, a familiar face was there to greet us as we got out of the van.

"Kawalski?" I asked, surprised as it had been a long time since I had seen my former teammate. I shook his hand vigorously and he slapped my shoulder with a giant grin.

"Jack! It's so good to see you, man. We all thought you were dead." It was truly good to see him again. We had been assigned together at my last post at Peterson AFB, the reason I had moved our family to Colorado Springs in the first place and we had been on many missions together. I hadn't seen him since my retirement, but it wasn't a great shock to me that West had taken Kawalski with him to his new command for he's a fine officer.

"I see West roped you in to all of this too." I pointed out.

"Yeah, it's not like the old days though...I kinda miss the action, ya know."

Just then Charlie stepped out of the van, followed by Sgt. Harriman. Kawalski's jaw dropped as he saw my son. He had been to Charlie's funeral and no doubt it was a shock to see him again.

"Oh my God, Jack..."

"Charlie, you remember Kawalski, don't you?"

"Sure, I do." He grinned. We had had many BBQ's in our backyard with all of the members of my team while I had been assigned to Peterson and oftentimes they played catch together while the rest of us hung out.

"Boy, Squirt...You sure do know how to give a man a heart-attack, you know that?" Obviously no one had told him that I was bringing Charlie back with me and he just shook his head in amazement.

"God, Jack...How is this possible...."

"Like I was telling the General, It's a long story, but you're welcome to hear it when I go and give what is going to no doubt be the longest de-briefing ever."

"I wouldn't miss that...." He smirked, "C'mon, everyone's waiting inside." He started to walk off, but I held him back.

"Wait...Sara....How is she?" I asked seriously.

I didn't miss the slight hesitation before he replied. "She's...here, actually and she's going to be fine."

"She's here?" My eyebrows raised in surprise. "Why?"

"The General brought her here with an escort, he wanted to speak to her personally, but then the shit kinda hit the fan."

"Where is she?" He paused again as though looking for the right words. "Well?" I demanded.

"Actually, she's in the infirmary below...but don't worry she's okay, she just had a little fainting spell." I breathed a sigh of relief to know that she was okay, but the need to see her right away was overpowering.

"You gotta take us to her."

"But, the General is waiting, sir..."

"He can wait a little longer...I'm going to see her first, got it?" I eyed him intensely, making it clear that I wasn't doing anything until I had seen her. Sara had been through hell these last few months and she needed to know that Charlie and I were still alive and to see it for herself. He nodded in understanding and led the way.

I held Charlie's hand as we followed Kawalski down an elevator and then a hallway to a set of double doors.

"She's in here." Kawalski stated. I peered inside through the windows and there was Sara lying in a bed, her eyes red and shakily accepting a glass of water from an older woman sitting next to her. I paused with my hand on the door.

"What'ya waiting for, Dad?" Charlie asked. I looked down at him, his bright brown eyes questioning me, he couldn't understand my reluctance to go in, my fear of hurting her any more.

I took a deep breath and collected myself, landing my hand on top of his shaggy hair and rubbing it.

"You ready?" I asked him though it was mostly a question for myself. He nodded happily and I took his hand again, pushing the door open and walking inside.

TBC....


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: Not mine, wish it were.**

_A/N: I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I'm wishing you all the best in the new year. Thank you all again for sticking with me, I just realized that it's been a year since I started this story and it's been my hardest one to write, but I'm grateful to each and everyone of you that's still reading this. I really haven't had much time to proof this as I would have liked, so if you notice any mistakes, just let me know. :D_

**Chapter 19**

_**Jack**_

Gripping my son's hand tight we walked together through the infirmary doors. The older woman beside Sara stood in surprise as Sara gasped and turned as white as the sheets she was laying on. Charlie wasted no time in covering the distance between him and his mother, running straight to her.

"Mom!" Charlie cried out as he approached her, his joy at seeing her palpable to everyone present. Sara could only stare in incomprehension when he stopped by her bed. She sat up slowly, her eyes wide and filling quickly with tears. She reached out a shaky hand to touch Charlie's face as if unsure that what she was seeing was in fact, real.

When her fingertips brushed his brow, she let out a choking sob, the contact instantly snapping her into reality. She brought both hand to his face, tracing the outline of his features with her fingers.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Charlie asked innocently, unaware of how much she and I had longed to touch him like this again. He lip quivered and she closed her eyes, nodding her head. Charlie grinned and hopped onto her bed and into her arms. She clung to him, uncontrollable sobbing coursing through her.

"Oh my God..." She repeated over and over like a mantra, stroking his hair and rocking our boy back and forth like I had seen her do so many times before he was taken from us.

I stood off to the side, unsure of how to come near, but was propelled forward by the sight of our son in her arms. With tears now rolling freely from my own eyes, I sat behind Charlie and wrapped my arms around both of them, burying my face into the back of Charlie's hair, wetting is I cried freely. Sara stopped and Looked up as I looked up at the same time, our eyes connecting and conveying so much without a word being spoken.

With one hand I reached up and around Charlie, Holding my wife's face in my hands wiping her tears with my thumb until she smiled. It was when I felt her hand over mine that I leaned in to kiss her. She closed her eyes at the brush of my lips against hers and I don't think I could have ever loved her more at that moment. We were together again, our family once torn apart by pain and grief was melding together in the space of those moments, solidly whole once again.

_**Daniel**_

Someone was crying. It was this heart wrenching sound that drew me out of a drowsy state and into a foggy sort of consciousness. As it continued, confusion ran rampant through my mind, I couldn't for the life of me remember falling asleep or even getting in bed, but I could only figure that Dr. Frasier had drugged me just like she threatened to after picking me up from conference room with Mrs. O'Neill.

And that's who it sounded like was crying. I forced my eyes open against their better judgment to stay closed and saw found that my bed was surrounded by a closed curtain. Groggy, but determined to find out what was happening, I pushed the covers off of me and hauled my legs to the edge of the bed, cursing when I found that I was still attached to an IV. Gripping the pole to the IV stand, I used it as leverage to get of bed until tentatively standing on wobbly legs. After I found some stability on my feet, I was determined to find out where the crying was coming from so I reached for the curtain and pulled it open just enough to see.

On the bed across the room was Sara clutching a young boy tightly in her arms, tears streaming freely down her face as her shoulders shook with unrestrained emotion. She rocked him back and forth like an infant, her hands rubbing up and down his back.

Then I saw him.

Colonel O'Neill, the man I had seen die, was walking into view and bending over to hold his wife and the boy, sandwiching the young man between them as he held them both tightly. Though I couldn't see his face I knew he was crying too.

I staggered back in shock. My mind couldn't comprehend what I was seeing and I fell back to the bed, ignoring the pain that struck across my back, feeling dizzy and disoriented. I had seen him take his last breath and yet there he was, only a few feet away. Maybe I was seeing things, maybe the drugs the doctor had me on were affecting my mind and I was hallucinating, that was the only rational explanation for what was happening.

I gripped the side of the bed as my head grew light and dark splotches formed over my vision. The curtain behind of me slid open with a sharp snap.

"Daniel, what are you doing up?" Doctor Frasier asked in an angry, sharp yet hushed voice. She walked around to my side.

"I was...I thought I saw..." I shook my head, stammering for the words. "I think I was seeing things." She snapped on a pen light and shined it into my eyes, the bright light causing me to wince.

"Seeing what?"

"You're going to think I'm crazy.... but I thought I saw Colonel O'Neill..." She smiled after I told her that, and I thought that was a very strange reaction coming from someone that I just told I was having hallucinations.

She laid a hand onto my shoulder and pushed me back down to the bed firmly, but with care.

"You weren't seeing things, Daniel."

"Then Colonel O'Neill is..."

"Alive, yes." She finished for me.

"How?" was all I could ask.

"I wish I knew more myself, but I don't know all of the specifics." She patted my shoulder then walked away for a moment. I was trying to sit up again, hoping that I might find someone else, Sam or Catherine perhaps, who knew more, but the doctor was back and pushing me back down once again with one hand, shoving a thermometer into my mouth with her other one before strapping on a blood pressure cuff. She took the readings with a pinched and sour face.

"I'm not liking your vitals right now and you still have a fever." She reached into her coat pocket and produced a syringe, uncapping it and pressing the needle into the IV on my hand.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Just a little bolus of the medicine I gave you earlier. It'll help with the pain let you get some rest."

"Wait...that's not gonna...knock..me...out...agai-" I protested, but was unable to finish before I was pulled back into sleep once more.

_**Two weeks later:**_

I tossed another wad of notes into the trash beside my desk in frustration and reached for the coffee mug that sat beside me, taking a swig and frowning at it's bitter coldness. Ten days of non-stop work and I still had nothing to show for my troubles. I was frustrated and getting nowhere with the symbols that I had been given to decipher. They just didn't make any sense, they weren't similar to any writing I had seen before, especially anything that ever came out of Egypt.

Pressing the button on my tape recorder I started over again with my notes, taking a long look again at the cover stones across the room from me.

"Completed search of cuneiform and other pre-dynastic hieroglyphics. No matches whatsoever. I've exhausted all reference material in comparing the symbols on the cartouche against all known writing samples from the period pre- and post-. Still no similarities..." I sighed and rubbed my still sore back. "I'm never gonna get paid." I mumbled to myself, forgetting that the recorder was still on.

Flicking off the recorder, I checked the time, it was nearing 5 am. I looked forlornly at the empty coffeepot in the corner, I was definitely going to need more. I figured a little break to make some more might be best to wake me up a little and re-boot my waning energy reserves.

I was getting the pot when the door opened and Sam walked in.

"Hey, Sam...What are you doing down here so early? Gosh, I haven't seen you in like a week, how's work on that ship going?"

"I wish I could tell you."

"Right, I forgot...civilians aren't supposed to have any access to any new classified research anymore." I groused. Col. Maybourne had returned last week and ordered that only military personnel would be granted access to new information unless it had been deemed by him to be necessary. No one had been very happy with that, especially Catherine who saw it as a personal affront to her authority and autonomy over the program. General West had expressed his displeasure at the situation as well, but Maybourne's report to the president had caused concern with higher-ups that a mole might still exist.

Sam looked over to the desk strewn with papers and books then turned to examine me, still holding the coffee pot, with a narrowed eye.

"Did you even sleep last night? You look exhausted. Dr. Frasier is going to have a conniption fit if she sees you like this"

"There's just so much I still don't know." I avoided the question then turned back to the cover stone, my frustration mounting once again.

"C'mon, Daniel. Give yourself a break. Others have been working on this for years, you've only been at it for a week."

"Ten days." I corrected her. "Nothing's ever been this hard for me before. I just don't get the symbols, they don't make any sense."

Sam sighed and walked over to me, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You'll get it. Just give it some time."

I patted her hand back. "Thanks." I told her only to be interrupted by a loud gurgle in my stomach. She chuckled a little at the sound and patted my stomach. "I think someone's hungry."

I couldn't help but smile. "I guess it's breakfast time. Care to join me?"

"Sure, sounds good."

I put the coffee pot down and headed out with Sam towards the commissary. We both took a tray, she taking a bowl of oatmeal while I grabbed a breakfast burrito and some coffee. We sat down together and chatted amiably while we ate until a figure came up to our table.

"May sit with you?" I looked up, surprised to see Catherine there that early in the morning. Sam too shared in my feelings asking, "Of course, Catherine. You're always welcome."

"Thank-you." She took a chair next to Sam and dipped her tea bag up and down in the hot water of her mug.

"I'm glad I caught the both of you together. I wanted to ask something of you the two of you."

"Sure." I replied. "Anything."

"As you know, has been throwing his weight around. I fear that his intent is to shut our program down."

"Really?" I asked. " Can he do that?"

"Not him personally, but he has the ear of the secretary of defense and the president. His report regarding the matter with Ba'al and Dr. Myers has worried the president, even though I and General West have assured him that there are no more leaks."

"What can we do?" Sam asked.

"Well, as you know, General West had originally slated Col. O'Neill to be his right hand man instead of Col. Maybourne, but Col. O'Neill has refused the post and given his current situation with his family, General West has decided not to persue Col. O'Neill as a viable option and has allowed him to stay in retirement. However, I've spoken with General West and he thinks that id Col. O'Neil was to come into the program as he was originally intended to, that the secretary of Defense would agree with his choice. The only problem would be in convincing Col. O'Neill to work for us."

"Ahh. I get it." I said. "You want us to somehow convince Col. O'Neill to come back to the Air Force...." I sighed. Col. O'Neill had made it very clear after his debriefing that he wanted nothing to do with us or the program after his family had been reuinted. "What makes you think that we can do that? I don't think even likes us."

Catherine took a slow drink of her tea then sighed. "Yes, that may be the case for now. But, he is a military man, he knows that the threat that Ba'al presented us is still out there. He was with the both of you when you were kidnapped you shared a harrowing experience together, that forms a bond that no one can break. He'll listen to the two of you, he won't listen to me or to General West. All you need to do is remind him that there is still one of the men that kidnapped the three of you out there and until he is apprehended, his family is still in danger."

Sam blew a puff of air from her cheeks. It was hard to argue Catherine's point. Things with Maybourne were getting worse and not better. Col. O'Neill would be a more reasonable choice for the position and in my mind I was willing to take the chance of having the door slammed in my face by one irate Colonel if it meant our work could be done more efficiently.

"I'll go. What about you, Sam?" I turned to her and she shrugged indecisively before sighing in defeat and acceptance.

"Alright, I'll go with you."

**To be continued....**


	20. Chapter 20

_A/N: Holy cow, I can't believe I've been working on this story for over a year and a half now and I'm so, so sorry that it's going so slow. I had planned on having this finished long ago, but life, laziness, and writer's block got in the way. Anyway, I want to send some special thanks to JAJJAJ for helping me to get off my butt and finally start up on this again. Hopefully, I should have this all wrapped up in the next couple of chapters ( and it won't take me two months to write them). I know it's not perfect and it's most likely riddled with mistakes, but thanks for reading it and reviews are always welcome! :D _

**Chapter 20**

_**Sam**_

To say that I was uncomfortable with the task that Catherine had convinced Daniel and I to perform was an understatement to say the least. Col. O'Neill was a man that had just had his family put in great peril and here I was going off to convince him to join up with the program that had placed them in harm's way in the first place. I didn't see much chance for success and given the temperament of the man that I had witnessed thus far, he wasn't going to be happy to see us.

In the passenger seat next to me, I saw that Daniel held much of the same trepidation. He fidgeted before sneezing repeatedly into a tissue then blew his nose.

"Sorry...allergies." He apologized. "Seems to be a lot worse here than they have ever been before."

"Must be the dry climate." I offered. "And all of the trees."

"Yeah, the altitude doesn't help much. I still get winded just climbing stairs."

"Takes a while to get used to it. I know I'm not completely adjusted to it yet." He nodded then yawned.

"Do you mind if we stop somewhere and get some coffee?"

Obviously the all-nighters Daniel had been pulling trying to figure out the meaning of the symbols of the cartouche was getting to him and any excuse at that moment to delay our trip out to see the colonel was enough for me.

"Sure." I agreed readily, thinking I could use a little coffee as well. I pulled the car into a coffee shop just outside of the gate and we both got out and went inside. Daniel ordered the largest, blackest cup of coffee I think I'd ever seen while I chose the soybean, half-caf, hazelnut latte. What can I say...I like fru-fru drinks sometimes.

We found a quiet corner and sat down, Daniel taking a deep sip before nearly spitting it out. "Damn, that's hot. I think I'm getting a little too used to cold, five-hour old coffee."

I grinned at him and we got into a little small talk, neither one of us apparently too anxious to get going and visit the colonel. It wasn't long before an animated discussion was struck up and we talked about subjects and ideas in depth for far longer than either of us had planned.

He went into his opinion of the military (which hadn't been too stellar until recently), While I found myself defending my choice of career (which he accepted, but was still astounded that someone with my scientific background had decided to join the air force). We disagreed on many things, but ultimately it had to be one of the most balanced conversations I had ever had with anyone. Where he pointed something out, I countered and vise versa. He listened to my theories on wormholes and actually seemed to understand and be facinated with it while I found his own theories on Egyptian society to be equally as engaging.

He was an interesting and complicated man. By all outward appearances he was your typical nerd, especially now with his hair growing back into unkempt mess and his new glasses (commonly referred to as BCG's or Birth Control Glasses) that the air force had so graciously bestowed upon him and he had yet to replace with a civilian pair. But he had a wit and intelligence to him that appealed to me. He wasn't the sort of man I was used to. I had been raised around military men my whole life, men that used every opportunity to prove to the world how strong and macho they were, much like Jonas had been.

But Daniel was different. He thought differently than them. He used his brain over his brawn, though he had proven himself to be just as strong and brave as any of the 'manly' men I had known. And by the time we had both realized that we had been talking for two hours straight and really should be going, I knew that I had found my new best friend.

Finally, we started out once again. Daniel still fidgeted in his seat and I figured it was from either nervousness or that his back injury still had to be giving him some trouble.

A few minutes later, we pulled up to the Col.'s house "You ready for this?" I asked.

"As I'll ever be, I suppose." He sighed and then gave me a sympathetic grin. "We might as well get this over with."

I took the initiative when we got to the door and rang the doorbell, silently hoping that we wouldn't be turned away out of hand like door-to-door salesmen. But to my surprise, when Col. O'Neill opened the door he actually looked like he wasn't too shocked to see us dropping in on him.

"Jackson, Carter. Fancy seeing you here. I figured it wouldn't be long before you two showed up."

"I'm sorry we came unannounced, Sir. But we wanted to have a word with you."

The colonel sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine..." He opened the door a little wider and allowed us to enter then offered us some coffee, which both Daniel and I passed on. The coffee we had had at the coffee shop was still coursing through me, ratcheting my nerves up and I certainly didn't need any more caffeine Beside of me, Daniel fidgeted again after the Col. mentioned coffee and a moment later, I understood why as he excused himself to go use the restroom. I felt slightly abandoned with his departure, leaving me alone to talk to the colonel, who turned on me sharply.

"I know that Catherine sent you." He started off, his face an unreadable mask, but not completely hiding the irritation simmering just behind it. "She's been trying to talk me into coming into the program. I know she means well and after meeting that ass, Col. Maybourne for my debriefing, I can understand why she might want anyone else in his place, even me."

"I think she hoped that we might be able to convince you to come back to the Air Force since we all shared some of the same experiences with Ba'al. And you know the kind of dangers that we might be facing should we be able to open the stargate." I told him.

"Look, Carter...As much as the Air Force was a part of my life that I loved. I have my son and my wife to consider. For the first time in a long time, we're all together as a family and I'm not going to let them go again. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm glad you get it at least, Captain. So, go tell Catherine she can stop calling, because the answer is going to be 'no' every time." Suddenly he grinned and rubbed his hands together, his previous irritation melting away into hospitality. "Well, Now that we've got that out of the way - it's Saturday, it's a nice day, I'm retired and you can't possibly be on duty any more. So, how 'bout a beer?"

_**Daniel **_

Thank goodness the drive from the coffee shop to Colonel O'Neill's house was short. After two hours of talking with Sam and three cups of coffee, I was in desperate need of a restroom and given the lack of lack of attention given to the one at the coffee shop, I decided that I could hold it.

That is until we started driving.

By the time we made it to Col. O'Neill's door, I was about ready to burst.

After greeting us at the door, he reluctantly let us in. "Can I get you two some coffee?" He asked._ Oh God, NO_ I thought to myself. The thought of anything liquid, even my favorite beverage, just made my need more pronounced.

"Actually...Could I use you restroom?" I had to ask before we could go any further. I felt bad for abandoning Sam with the Colonel, but the call of nature had become more than just a little distracting.

"Sure...It's down the hall." He pointed.

"Thank you." I couldn't have sounded more grateful as I hurried down the hallway. That's when I realized that he hadn't told me which door to go into and of course they were all closed. Flipping a mental coin in my head as to whether go to the door on the right or the left, I ultimately chose to go to the left.

Ooops.

I really should have gone to the right first for when I opened the door, I was greeted not with a bathroom, but with a brightly painted bedroom. At one end, opposite the bed, a young boy sat on the floor coloring and looked up as soon as I opened the door. I knew this had to be the colonel's son, Charlie and I began to make my apologies for bursting in on him.

"Oh...sorry. I guess I got the wrong door."

"Hi!" He grinned. "You're one of my Dad's friends, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah. Kinda."

"Hey ya wanna come in and see my pictures?" He asked with a grin that was missing a few teeth.

"Uh, well actually, I was looking for the bathroom."

Seeing his face fall a little, I immediately felt a wave of regret. "But...how bout I come right back and look at them when I'm done?"

"Sure!" He smiled brightly once again. I excused myself and quickly made for the bathroom and took care of my business. No sooner had I stepped out of the room, that Charlie was by my side and taking me by the hand, leading him to his room.

"Look! I almost finished them all." He pointed to the various drawings he had up on his walls. All of them black with tiny, white points. "They're the constellations. I only have three more to do...Draco, which is really hard because it's so long, Ursa minor and cassi...cassiop...oh shoot that's hard to say."

"Cassiopeia?" I finished for him.

"Yeah. That one has a funny name."

"Well, Cassiopeia means 'She whose words excel' in Greek." I began to explain to him. "She was a beautiful queen married to Cepheus, the king of Ethiopia. They had a daughter whose name was Andromeda and one day the queen boasted that she and her daughter where more beautiful than the sea nymphs. This made Poseidon, the God of the sea angry, so he sent Cetus, a sea monster to destroy their country. However, the king and queen learned from an oracle that the sea monster could be pacified and their country saved if they sacrificed their daughter to the monster. So, Andromeda was chained to a rock by the sea for the monster to eat her. Instead, a young man named Perseus swoops in at the last minute and saves her by showing Cetus the head of Medusa, a Gorgon, or a type of monster that was so hideous that just looking at her turned people into stone. After the sea monster was into a statue, the king and queen were so grateful that they offered their daughter to Perseus in marriage. After Andromeda and Perseus were married, Poseidon still wasn't pleased with Cassiopeia's vanity, so her took her and threw her up into the heavens where she was to remain as a constellation for all eternity, sitting on her throne and looking into her mirror."

"Wow!..." Charlie looked up at me with wide eyes. "You sure do talk a lot."

Even though I was a little abashed to be brought down by a nine year old, I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Yeah... you're not the first person to tell me that."

"Do you know all the stories about the constellations?"

"Yeah..pretty much. It's sort of my job."

"Do you know the story of this one?" He picked up another drawing and showed it to me. I recognized it as Orion. "There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight near this one and my Dad said he'd let me stay up to watch it. He doesn't really know all of the stories, so he just makes them up. He thinks this one looks like Bart Simpson riding his skateboard."

"Yeah it kinda does." I agreed with a grin "But this one is Orion, right?. The great hunter. He's depicted carrying his club in one hand and the head of a lion in the other..." I started to stare at the picture, something clicking and jarring my memory loose. "Hey... could I see that a little closer?" I asked Charlie.

"Sure." He handed me the drawing and I studied it for a moment, then turned it on its side. I felt my stomach hit my feet as a sudden dawning sparked and exploded in my mind.

"Oh... My... God." I muttered to myself.

"You okay?" Charlie asked. I could have hugged the boy just at that moment. It was all starting to make sense, the pieces of the puzzle I had been handed were finally coming together and taking shape. I just couldn't believe it had all been so simple and the answers that I had been looking for had been there all along- no further away than looking up into the stars.

TBC...


End file.
